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APOD: 2026 September 27 – Andromeda Before and After Photoshop

2026-09-27 04:05

APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Before image of the Andromeda galaxy with streaks marring the field of view.

Image of the Andromeda Galaxy after processing out blemishes.

Andromeda Before and After Photoshop

Explanation: What does the Andromeda galaxy really look like? The featured before image shows how our Milky Way Galaxy‘s closest major galactic neighbor really appears in a long exposure through Earth‘s busy skies and with a digital camera that introduces normal imperfections. The picture is a stack of 223 images, each a 300 second exposure, taken from a garden observatory in Por t ugal during 2019. Obvious image deficiencies include bright parallel airplane trails, long and continuous satellite trails, short cosmic ray streaks, and bad pixels. In the after image, these imperfections were actually not removed with Photoshop specifically, but rather greatly reduced with a series of computer software packages that included Astro Pixel Processor, DeepSkyStacker, and PixInsight. All of this work was done not to deceive you with a digital fantasy that has little to do with the real likeness of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), but to minimize Earthly artifacts that have nothing to do with the distant galaxy and so better recreate what M31 really does look like.

APOD’s email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions
APOD’s main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
Tomorrow’s picture: cosmic latte

Date	September 26, 2026
Credit & Copyright:	Kees Scherer
Authors & editors:	Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of:	ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

Yesterday’s Image

APOD: 2026 September 26 – Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way

Tomorrow’s Image

APOD: 2026 September 26 – Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way

2026-09-26 04:05

APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

A large, segmented telescope mirror is seen against the night sky along with the Milky Way and a bright meteor.

Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way

Explanation: On August 15, this perseid meteor streaked through night skies over the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos at La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. The bright and colorful meteor trail was captured next to the central Milky Way, whose dark interstellar dust clouds and luminous starlight reach above the horizon. In the foreground of this tantalizing celestial scene is the 23 meter diameter mirror of the prototype Large-Sized Telescope (LST-1). LST-1 is the first telescope constructed at the northern hemisphere site of the innovative Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory. With 198 hexagonal mirror segments and a large, high-efficiency, pixelized camera, LST-1 is designed to detect extremely brief, atmospheric visible light flashes. Lasting about a billionth of a second, the visible light flashes are triggered by energetic gamma-rays from cosmic sources such as distant active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. Of course, on that night some individual mirror segments of LST-1 also reflected the atmospheric flash of the bright perseid meteor.

APOD’s email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions.
APOD’s main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
Tomorrow’s picture: before and after

Date	September 26, 2026
Credit & Copyright:	Jeff Dai (TWAN)
Authors & editors:	Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Keighley Rockcliffe
A service of:	ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.

Yesterday’s Image

APOD: 2026 September 25 – Globular Star Cluster Omega Centauri

Tomorrow’s Image

NASA, Boeing to Provide Update on Starliner Development

2026-09-25 22:06

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port.

Credit: NASA

During a news conference at 3 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 28, NASA and Boeing leadership will discuss Starliner’s development and plans for regular crew flights to and from the International Space Station.

Learn where to watch online:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

The briefing participants include:

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman
Dana Weigel, manager, NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program
Woody Hoburg, NASA astronaut
John Mulholland, vice president and program manager, Boeing Commercial Crew

Media already credentialed for Crew-13 may participate in person at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To ask questions, media must request the dial-in number from the Kennedy newsroom by emailing: ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov no later than one hour prior to the start of the call. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.

For NASA’s blog and more information about the agency’s missions, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

-end-

George Alderman / Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
george.a.alderman@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov

Details

Last Updated

Sep 25, 2026

Location

NASA Headquarters

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NASA Welcomes San Marino Signing the Artemis Accords

2026-09-25 19:53

Minister of Industry and Technological Research Rossano Fabbri signed on behalf of San Marino. Gregory Mann, NASA Europe representative, and U.S. Consul General in Florence Joseph Tordella participated in the event on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026.

Credit: U.S. Department of State

The Republic of San Marino became the 76th signatory to the Artemis Accords during a ceremony in the city of Rimini on Friday with NASA and U.S. Department of State officials present.

“San Marino joins a growing coalition of like-minded nations committed to the peaceful, transparent, and responsible exploration of space,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson. “President Trump has directed NASA to build a Moon Base and establish an enduring presence on the lunar surface. As we do, we are putting the principles of the Accords into practice. NASA has invited every Artemis Accords signatory to participate in our return to the Moon through scientific payloads, technology demonstrations, CubeSats, and other capabilities. San Marino is already looking toward that future.”

Minister of Industry and Technological Research Rossano Fabbri signed on behalf of San Marino. Gregory Mann, NASA Europe representative, participated in the ceremony with the U.S. Consul General in Florence Joseph Tordella.  

“We are pleased and honored that the Republic of San Marino has been welcomed as the 76th signatory state of the Artemis Accords,” said Fabbri. “We fully share the principles and values expressed in the Artemis Accords, and we are convinced that the signatory states united under the Accords will make a tangible contribution to promoting international cooperation in space and ensuring the use of space for peaceful purposes.”

In 2020, NASA and the State Department joined with seven other founding nations to establish the Artemis Accords, responding to the growing interest in lunar activities by both governments and private companies. They introduced the first set of practical principles aimed at enhancing the safety and coordination between nations as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond, committing nations to:

Explore peaceably and transparently

Render aid to those in need

Enable access to scientific data

Ensure activities do not interfere with those of others

Preserve historically significant sites and artifacts by developing best practices

By signing the Artemis Accords, nations open the door to opportunities for future lunar exploration with NASA, advancing humanity’s return to the Moon, and shaping the Golden Age of exploration and innovation.

Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords

Details

Last Updated

Sep 25, 2026

Location

NASA Headquarters

Related Terms

NASA Tests Dual Mode Propulsion CubeSat Ahead of Launch

2026-09-25 19:36

Spacecraft propulsion traditionally relies on volatile fuels and separate, bulky systems for different types of maneuvering in space. NASA is working to change that paradigm. Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recently completed a rigorous series of environmental and physical tests on a new small satellite designed to make spaceflight safer and more efficient.

The ASCENT (Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic) Propulsion Dual Mode mission is a flight demonstration of a spacecraft about the size of a large shoebox. The mission will test a single, integrated propulsion system that uses a common fuel tank to feed two different types of engines.

An Album of photos showing NASA engineers and technicians in white protective clean room suits working on a small, rectangular spacecraft module. They are shown inspecting the hardware on a laboratory workbench, wrapping it in silver foil, and loading it into a large, metallic vacuum chamber at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

Dr. Nehemiah Williams, the demonstration’s project manager at NASA, prepares to start testing the mission’s flight hardware in a clean room at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The mission will demonstrate a single, non-toxic propulsion system that combines both high-thrust and low-thrust capabilities into a common tank.

NASA/Charles Beason

Typically, spacecraft carry two separate propulsion systems to navigate: a high-thrust chemical system for rapid movements like entering orbit, and a low-thrust electric system for highly efficient, slow maneuvers like maintaining a position. This requires multiple fuel tanks and heavy plumbing, which eats up valuable space and weight.

The spacecraft being developed uses a single non-toxic propellant called ASCENT. By feeding both a high-thrust combustion engine and low-thrust electrospray thrusters from one central tank, the spacecraft saves critical mass and volume. For future missions, this means more room for scientific instruments and the ability to launch on smaller, less expensive rockets.

Bringing this concept to flight requires a nationwide collaborative effort. While NASA Marshall manages the mission, the spacecraft relies on electrospray thrusters developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a chemical propulsion module built by Plasma Processes, and a spacecraft bus integrated by the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“There are a lot of odds and ends, and a lot of small challenges and some big ones,” said Nehemiah Williams, the demonstration’s project manager at NASA Marshall. “But ensuring the functionality of the propulsion system across all these different teams is what makes the mission successful.”

Before a spacecraft can safely operate in the harsh environment of low Earth orbit, it must pass a battery of tests on the ground. Over the past few months, the engineering team at Marshall has put the flight hardware through its paces inside the center’s Small Spacecraft Servicing and Integration Lab.

To verify the integrity of the unified propulsion system, the team conducted extensive leak testing. Engineers performed a pressurized helium leak test of the spacecraft inside a vacuum chamber to ensure the integrity of the spacecraft’s seals, successfully proving those seals were working as intended. Because the system shares a single tank of ASCENT propellant to feed two different thruster types, ensuring that the fuel lines and valves are perfectly sealed is vital for mission safety and success.

An Album of photos showing NASA engineers and technicians in white protective clean room suits working on a small, rectangular (CubeSat) spacecraft module. They are shown inspecting the hardware on a laboratory workbench, wrapping it in silver foil, and loading it into a large, metallic vacuum chamber at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

Propulsion subject matter expert Chris Burnside left, and propulsion lead Ebony Bland, right, prepare the mission’s flight hardware for testing inside a clean room at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The 6-U CubeSat recently underwent rigorous spin, thermal vacuum, and leak tests to ensure its innovative, non-toxic propulsion system is ready for the extreme environment of space.

NASA/Charles Beason

The team also subjected the spacecraft to thermal vacuum testing. Space is an unforgiving environment characterized by a total lack of air and extreme temperature swings. By placing the spacecraft inside a specialized vacuum chamber that mimics these harsh conditions, engineers can ensure that the electronics, thrusters, and mechanical systems will operate normally once in orbit.

Additionally, the spacecraft underwent a spin test. Just like a tire on a car, a spacecraft needs to be perfectly balanced. The spin test measures the spacecraft’s mass properties and center of gravity. This validates the CubeSat’s ability to stably fly and maintain the correct attitude, allowing its antennas to communicate with Earth and its solar panels to accurately catch the Sun’s rays.

With the environmental and physical testing now complete, the mission is entering its final stages of preparation. The team will complete the final system checkouts, integrate the spacecraft’s solar arrays, and ship the hardware to its launch destination.

The ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode mission is manifested to launch no earlier than October 1 as a payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Once deployed into an orbit about 325 miles above Earth, the spacecraft will begin a nine-month mission. After an initial checkout period, the operations team will execute short chemical and electric maneuvers. If successful, the spacecraft will spend several months performing multiple orbit-raising and lowering maneuvers, alternating between its high-thrust and low-thrust engines to prove the dual-mode concept works in space.

The ASCENT Propulsion Dual Mode mission is managed and funded by NASA’s Small Spacecraft & Distributed Systems (SSDS) within the agency’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. SSDS is based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.