Picture of the day, asteroid flybys and Earth from space

Frequently asked questions

What is the Astronomy Picture of the Day?

The Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is a daily feature that began on June 16, 1995. Each day it publishes a different image or video of the universe with a short explanation written by a professional astronomer. It is now published on NASA Science at science.nasa.gov/apod.

Can I reuse APOD images from this site?

Not automatically. Many APOD images are copyrighted by the photographers or institutions named in their credit line. OpenOrbit does not host the images; it shows each one from its original address with its credit. Check the credit and ask the copyright holder before reusing an image.

What does “potentially hazardous asteroid” mean?

It is a classification, not a prediction of impact. An asteroid is labeled potentially hazardous when it is estimated to be larger than about 140 meters (absolute magnitude 22 or brighter) and its orbit can come within 0.05 astronomical units, about 7.5 million kilometers, of Earth’s orbit.

How close will asteroids come to Earth this week?

NASA’s NeoWs feed lists 37 close approaches from October 28, 2026 to November 3, 2026, each with a predicted miss distance. The closest is 2018 GS1, expected to pass about 4,240,878 km (11.0 lunar distances) from Earth on October 28, 2026.

What is a lunar distance?

A lunar distance (LD) is the average distance between Earth and the Moon, about 384,400 kilometers or 238,855 miles. Asteroid flybys are often given in lunar distances because the number is easier to picture than millions of kilometers.

Where do the full-Earth photos come from?

They are taken by NASA’s EPIC camera (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) aboard NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite, which watches the sunlit side of Earth from near the Sun–Earth L1 point, roughly 1.5 million kilometers away. EPIC takes a series of natural-color images each day.

How up to date is OpenOrbit?

Pages are built from saved copies of the public data. The current copy was taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The Earth photo section also checks the EPIC service for newer images when the page opens in your browser.