On October 22, 2026, the Astronomy Picture of the Day featured an illustration of WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf star surrounded by an accretion disk with gas and rocks orbiting the star. Other than the Sun, all stars are so far from Earth that they appear as points in the sky. They are mostly white, but sometimes noticeably red or blue, with color typically relating to temperature since blue stars are hotter than red stars.
Astronomers recently found that some white dwarf stars, despite their name, would appear yellow, green, cyan, pink, or purple. In these cases, trace elements that were accreted to these stars interact with the stellar atmosphere and shift its normally white color. White dwarfs are small, faint stars that are left over when a star like the Sun exhausts its nuclear fuel.
However, despite the possibility of these colors, they are too faint to see tonight. The featured image was credited to Mark A. Garlick/University of Warwick. The authors and editors for the publication include Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, and Keighley Rockcliffe.
The service is provided by ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation, and Michigan Tech. U. Tomorrow’s picture is scheduled to feature an eye in the sky.
