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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Sideways Galaxy NGC 3628
15.05.2008
Dark dust lanes cut across the middle of this gorgeous island universe, a strong hint that NGC 3628 is a spiral galaxy seen sideways. About 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation...
A Supply Ship Docks with the International Space Station
14.05.2008
Looking out a window of the International Space Station brings breathtaking views. Visible vistas include a vast and colorful Earth, a deep dark sky, and an occasional spaceship sent to visit the station. Visible early last month was a Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft carrying not only supplies but also three newcomers.
Ancient Craters of Southern Rhea
13.05.2008
Saturn's ragged moon Rhea has one of the oldest surfaces known. Estimated as changing little in the past billion years, Rhea shows craters so old they no longer appear round their edges have become compromised by more recent cratering.
The M81 Galaxy Group Through the Integrated Flux Nebula
12.05.2008
Large galaxies and faint nebula highlight this deep image of the M81 Group of galaxies. First and foremost in the above wide-angle 12-hour exposure is the grand design spiral galaxy M81, the largest galaxy visible in the image.
Retrograde Mars
11.05.2008
Why would Mars appear to move backwards? Most of the time, the apparent motion of Mars in Earth's sky is in one direction, slow but steady in front of the far distant stars. About every two years, however, the Earth passes Mars as they orbit around the Sun.
Stars and Mars
10.05.2008
Wandering through the evening sky, on May 4th planet Mars stood in line with Castor and Pollux, the two bright stars of the constellation Gemini. In this time exposure of the celestial alignment, Mars...
Moon Meets Mercury
9.05.2008
On Tuesday, May 6, while standing on planet Earth and sweeping your binoculars along the western horizon just after sunset, you might have encountered this arresting skyscape. The view features a slender crescent Moon and bright planet Mercury separated on the sky by only about 2 degrees.
The Dark Tower in Scorpius
8.05.2008
In silhouette against a crowded star field toward the constellation Scorpius, this dusty cosmic cloud evokes for some the image of an ominous dark tower. In fact, clumps of dust and molecular gas collapsing...
The Gegenschein Over Chile
7.05.2008
Is the night sky darkest in the direction opposite the Sun? No. In fact, a rarely discernable faint glow known as the gegenschein (German for "counter glow") can be seen 180 degrees around from the Sun in an extremely dark sky. The gegenschein is sunlight back-scattered off small interplanetary dust particles.
Galaxies Collide in NGC 3256
6.05.2008
Galaxies don't normally look like this. NGC 3256 actually shows a current picture of two galaxies that are slowly colliding. Quite possibly, in hundreds of millions of years, only one galaxy will remain.
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