A NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day entry published on September 13, 2026, revisited a time-lapse of Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) rising over the Adriatic Sea, photographed from Italy before sunrise on July 8, 2020. The image was credited to Paolo Girotti.

According to the entry, the video combined more than 240 images taken over 30 minutes. It showed the comet rising through bright, undulating noctilucent clouds against a background of distant stars.

The entry described NEOWISE as one of the few comets visible to the unaided eye this century and noted that it remained unexpectedly bright for over a month. Its ion and dust tails were found to emanate from a nucleus spanning about five kilometers across, the entry said.

The page also noted that APOD's main NASA site was moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod.