![]() |
Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
![Гибридное солнечное затмение](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/05/06/0001205498/hybrid_merge_1.preview.jpg)
6.05.2005
April's spectacular geocentric celestial event was a rare hybrid eclipse of the Sun - a total or an annular eclipse could be seen depending on the observer's location. For Fred Espenak, aboard...
![Мира: удивительная звезда](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/05/05/0001205476/mira_xray_cxc.preview.jpg)
5.05.2005
To seventeenth century astronomers, Omicron Ceti or Mira was known as a wonderful star - a star whose brightness could change dramatically in the course of about 11 months. Modern astronomers now recognize an entire class of long period Mira-type variables as cool, pulsating, red giant stars, 700 or so times the diameter of the Sun.
![Космический аппарат Кассини пересекает плоскость колец Сатурна](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/05/04/0001205453/saturnplane_cassini.preview.jpg)
4.05.2005
If this is Saturn, where are the rings? When Saturn's "appendages" disappeared in 1612, Galileo did not understand why. Later that century, it became understood that Saturn's unusual protrusions were rings and that when the Earth crosses the ring plane, the edge-on rings will appear to disappear.
![Солнечная система восходит над Огненным островом](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/05/03/0001205447/lighthouse_landolfi.preview.jpg)
3.05.2005
If you wait long enough, the entire Solar System will rise before you. To see such a sight, however, you will need to look in the direction of the ecliptic. All of the planets and their moons orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane, the ecliptic plane.
![Выход пород Мафусаил на Марсе](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/05/03/0001205446/methuselah_spirit.preview.jpg)
2.05.2005
What the history of the outcropping of rock called Methuselah? The unusual rock group is visible on the left of the above image taken by the robot Spirit rover current exploring Mars. Methuselah was discovered while maneuvering over hilly terrain and shows unusual multiple layering that caught the attention of the rover science team.
![Планетарная туманность Mz3: туманность Муравей](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/05/03/0001205445/mz3_hst.preview.jpg)
1.05.2005
Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?
![Спутники Земли](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/05/03/0001205444/moonmir_sts91_big.preview.jpg)
30.04.2005
While orbiting the planet during their June 1998 mission, the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery photographed this view of two moons of Earth. Thick storm clouds are visible in the lovely blue planet...
![Маленький спутник Эпиметей](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/05/03/0001205448/epim_cas_c.preview.jpg)
29.04.2005
Small saturnian moon Epimetheus (ep-ee-MEE-thee-us) is at most 116 kilometers across. Its cratered surface and irregular shape are highlighted by dramatic shadows in this composite close-up image from the Cassini spacecraft. However, orbiting 91,000 kilometers above Saturn's cloud tops, Epimetheus is not alone.
![M51: космический водоворот](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/04/28/0001205395/m51_hst_90x.preview.jpg)
28.04.2005
Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl, until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog.
![Скопление галактик в Геркулесе](http://images.astronet.ru/pubd/2005/04/27/0001205392/hercules_misti.preview.jpg)
27.04.2005
These are galaxies of the Hercules Cluster, an archipelago of "island universes" a mere 650 million light-years distant. This cluster is loaded with gas and dust rich, star forming, spiral galaxies but has relatively few elliptical galaxies, which lack gas and dust and the associated newborn stars.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |