                        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 August 7
   A deep field image of the sky, with some highlighted areas shown with a
                                  zoom-in.

                            Rubin's COSMOS field
               Image Credit & Copyright: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin
                        Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA
             Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)

   Explanation: There are more than half a million galaxies in the central
   panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in
   Chile. This is the COSMOS field, a patch of sky several times larger
   than the full moon, first observed by Hubble. It has also been observed
   by Webb and other telescopes because it contains comparatively few
   bright stars from our own galaxy, offering a relatively unimpeded view
   of other galaxies outside the Milky Way. The outer panels, numbered
   1-10, show zoomed-in views of the corresponding small regions
   highlighted in the central panel. The variety of galaxy shapes and
   sizes is astonishing. Some of them are so far away that their light has
   traveled for billions of years before reaching Earth. Rubin will come
   back every couple of days to the COSMOS field as part of its ten-year
   Legacy Survey of Space and Time. It will allow a dynamic view of the
   COSMOS field and how the sky changes over time.

                      Tomorrow's picture: What's next?
     __________________________________________________________________

       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.

