NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 16 June 2023: Aurora - From sunset to sunrise

Today’s NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a timelapse image from sunset to sunrise.

A stunning view of an aurora timelapse is shown in today’s NASA APOD. (Bernd Pröschold (TWAN))

It's NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) birthday! It was first launched on June 16, 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell. With a vast collection of astronomical images, the APOD archive stands as the largest repository of its kind on the internet, NASA says. Each day NASA features a different picture of some part of our fascinating universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Today's NASA astronomy photo of the day features a timelapse from sunset to sunrise with an aurora. A breathtaking view from the coast of Sweden's coastline gazes over the Baltic Sea, capturing the essence of time within a single photograph. Within this image, an entire night unfolds! From sunset to sunrise, the moon's radiance illuminates the sea and skyscape along with fleeting clouds, fixed stars, and stunning northern lights.

How this timelapse was captured

In order to create the timelapse image, Bernd Proschold, an astronomical timelapse photographer, has captured a total of 3296 video frames during the night of the Full Moon in June, spanning from 7:04 pm to 6:35 am local time. Each frame contributed a single column of pixels to the final image, resulting in a sequential combination of 3296 pixels, forming a digital image that is 3296 pixels wide. The progression of time is represented from left to right in the image.

First NASA APOD

The first ever NASA APOD, shared on June 16, 1995, was a computer-generated image showing how Earth could somehow be transformed to the ultra-high density of a neutron star.

NASA explains that the intense gravitational field exerted by the neutron star causes significant distortion of light from the surrounding sky. With a closer view, two images of the Orion constellation become noticeable. The gravitational force generated by this specific neutron star is so immense that no portion of it is obstructed from the view.