Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]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.

                              2025 September 27
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                             A Rocket in the Sun
               Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Pascal Fouquet

   Explanation: [5]On the morning of September 24 a rocket crosses the
   bright solar disk in this long range telescopic snapshot captured from
   Orlando, Florida. That's about 50 miles north of its Kennedy Space
   Center launch site. This rocket carried three new space weather
   missions to space. Signals have now been successfully acquired [6]from
   all three - NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, NASA’s
   Carruthers [7]Geocorona Observatory, and the National Oceanic and
   Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1
   (SWFO-L1) - as they begin their journey to L1, an Earth-Sun lagrange
   point. [8]L1 is about 1.5 million kilometers in the sunward direction
   from planet Earth. Appropriately, major space weather influencers, aka
   dark sunspots in active regions across the Sun, are posing with the
   transiting rocket. [9]In fact, large active region AR4225 is just right
   of the rocket's nose.

                   Tomorrow's picture: spots on the rocks
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    Authors & editors: [21]Robert Nemiroff ([22]MTU) & [23]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([24]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Amber Straughn [25]Specific rights apply.
            [26]NASA Web Privacy, [27]Accessibility, [28]Notices;
                A service of: [29]ASD at [30]NASA / [31]GSFC,
                         [32]NASA Science Activation
                           & [33]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2509/IMAP-IG2-001.JPG
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. https://www.instagram.com/pf.photography__/
   5. https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/imap/2025/09/24/liftoff-three-new-space-weather-spacecraft-soar-into-florida-sky/
   6. https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/imap/
   7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181028.html
   8. https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/L1_the_first_Lagrangian_Point
   9. https://earthsky.org/sun/sun-news-activity-solar-flare-cme-aurora-updates/
  10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250926.html
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  14. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  16. https://apod.com/feed.rss
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  19. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250927
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250928.html
  21. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  23. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  24. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  26. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  27. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/
  28. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/
  29. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  30. https://www.nasa.gov/
  31. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  32. https://science.nasa.gov/learners
  33. http://www.mtu.edu/