                        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.

                                2026 April 29
    The crescent Moon, Venus, and the Pleiades travel across the twilight
    sky. The silhouettes of a few beach flowers decorate the foreground.

                      The Moon, Venus, and the Pleiades
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Gianni Tumino
         Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)

   Explanation: No, Earth did not recently acquire six more moons! Today’s
   APOD is a combination of images following the Moon, Venus, and the
   Pleiades across a southern Sicilian sky as twilight turned to evening
   on April 19. From 2023 to 2029, the Pleiades' and the Moon “visit" each
   other once per month due to the Pleiades' location in the ecliptic
   plane. April 2026 saw the celestial alignment of their visit with
   Venus. About six stars in the Pleiades cluster (Messier 45) are
   typically visible with the unaided eye. Due to the cluster’s visibility
   across the world, there are many myths and legends across cultures
   associated with the Pleiades. The Haudenosaunee people of North
   America, for example, say that seven boys danced so enthusiastically
   that they lifted off into the sky. Astronomers recently found thousands
   more Pleiades members, showing that after thousands of years of gazing
   upon this cluster, there is yet more to learn about the Pleiades.

                     Tomorrow's picture: Waves on Titan
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

