Astronomy Central is a website that showcases NASA APIs, such as APOD, EPIC, InSight, and MARS ROVER. These APIs provide stunning images and data about space, Earth, and Mars. The website offers an easy-to-use interface for users to explore and learn from, making it a great resource for astronomy enthusiasts, students, teachers, and researchers.
Today's Date: 2025-06-21
Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) features daily images or photographs related to astronomy along with a brief explanation written by professional astronomers. The images can range from beautiful pictures of the night sky to stunning visuals of galaxies, nebulae, planets, and other celestial objects.
APOD has been running since June 16, 1995 and is managed by a team of astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Michigan.
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel
Sure, that figure-8 shaped curve you get when you mark the position of the Sun in Earth's sky at the same time each day over one year is called an analemma. On the left, Earth's figure-8 analemma was traced by combining wide-angle digital images recorded during the year from December 2011 through December 2012. But the shape of an analemma depends on the eccentricity of a planet's orbit and the tilt of its axis of rotation, so analemma curves can look different for different worlds. Take Mars for example. The Red Planet's axial tilt is similar to Earth's, but its orbit around the same sun is more eccentric (less circular) than Earth's orbit. As seen from the Martian surface, the analemma traced in the right hand panel is shaped more like a tear drop. The Mars rover Opportunity captured the images used over the Martian year corresponding to Earth dates July 2006 to June 2008. Of course, each world's solstice dates still lie at the top and bottom of their different analemma curves. The last Mars northern summer solstice was May 29, 2025. Our fair planet's 2025 northern summer solstice is at June 21, 2:42 UTC.