Astronomy Picture of the Day

Good morning RP. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "NICER at Night." NICER, the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, is a science payload on the International Space Station. It tracks track cosmic sources of X-rays as the station orbits planet Earth every 93 minutes, resulting in this all-sky map made from 22 months of NICER data. The bright spots indicate pulsars in the X-ray sky that NICER regularly targets and monitors. The timing of X-ray emissions from pulsars is so precise it can be used for navigation, determining spacecraft speed and position.