Astromony Picture of the Day - NanoSail-D2

NASA ^ | 2 Jan, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Vandebergh

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: In 2011, on January 20, NASA's NanoSail-D2 unfurled a very thin and very reflective 10 square meter sail becoming the first solar sail spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Often considered the stuff of science fiction, sailing through space was suggested 400 years ago by astronomer Johannes Kepler, who had observed comet tails blown by the solar wind. But modern solar sail spacecraft designs, like NanoSail-D2, Japan's interplanetary spacecraft IKAROS, or the Planetary Society's Lightsail A, rely on the small but continuous pressure from sunlight itself for thrust. Glinting in the sunlight as it circled planet Earth, NanoSail-D2's solar sail was periodically bright and visible to the eye. These remarkably detailed images were captured by manually tracking the orbiting solar sail spacecraft with a small telescope.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list 🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

Come sail away.

[Red Badger]

[BenLurkin]

Very cool.

[NavyShoe]

Box kite!

[MtnClimber]

The ACME Coyote Nano Sail. No doubt it ends with a BANG!

[SunkenCiv]

• Risking My Life To Settle A Physics Debate [Veritasium] [07/13/2021]

[telescope115]

That is some amazing photography. I’v seen some really high resolution photos by this same photographer of the ISS and the space shuttle. Just phenomenal.

I remember this space sail being launched, but then I didn’t hear any more about it.