APOD: 2026 July 30 – Red Sun trough Wildfire Smoke

NASA News featured a striking photograph for Astronomy Picture of the Day on Thursday: the Sun rendered deep red and dimmed by wildfire smoke. The image was taken July twenty-second in British Columbia's Okanagan region and showed how smoke from Pacific Northwest fires acted as a natural solar filter, scattering blue light and leaving only redder wavelengths visible. Several sunspots are visible, including a large, rapidly evolving active solar region called A R forty-four ninety-three. While this crimson appearance is temporary—caused by atmospheric smoke—it offers a glimpse of our Sun's distant future: in about six billion years, it will actually begin turning red as it enters its red giant phase.

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