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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Comet and Aurora Over Alaska
22.04.2002
Can you spot the comet? Flowing across the frozen Alaskan landscape is an easily visible, colorful aurora. Just to the lower left, however, well in the background, is something harder to spot: Comet Ikeya-Zhang, the brightest comet of recent years. Although the aurora faded in minutes, the comet is just now beginning to fade.
The Center of Centaurus A
21.04.2002
A fantastic jumble of young blue star clusters, gigantic glowing gas clouds, and imposing dark dust lanes surrounds the central region of the active galaxy Centaurus A. This mosaic of Hubble Space Telescope images taken in blue, green, and red light has been processed to present a natural color picture of this cosmic maelstrom.
Orion Nebula: The 2MASS View
20.04.2002
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the nearby stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. The Nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.
The Old Moon in the New Moon's Arms
19.04.2002
Also known as the Moon's "ashen glow" or "the old Moon in the new Moon's arms", Earthshine is Earthlight reflected from the Moon's night side. This dramatic image of Earthshine...
Planets in the West
18.04.2002
Have you seen any bright planets lately? Chances are if you've been outside under clear skies just after sunset, then you have. Now shining in the west as bright "stars" in the night sky, are all five planets of the solar system known to ancient astronomers - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.
The Glory
17.04.2002
Looking out the window of an airplane, you might be lucky enough to see "the glory" in the direction directly opposite the Sun. Before airplanes, the phenomenon, known to some as the heiligenschein or the Specter of the Brocken, was sometimes seen from mountaintops.
Millions of Stars in Omega Centauri
16.04.2002
Pictured above is the largest ball of stars in our Galaxy. About 10 million stars orbit the center of this globular cluster - named Omega Centauri - as this giant globular cluster orbits our Galactic center.
A New Truss for the International Space Station
15.04.2002
The International Space Station (ISS) is being fitted with a backbone. During the present visit of Space Shuttle Atlantis, astronauts are installing a huge truss on the growing space outpost. The truss is over 13 meters long and about 4.5 meters wide.
375: Candidate Quark Star
14.04.2002
Why is RJX J185635-375 so cool and so dim? Previously, this compact star held claim to being the closest neutron star -- only 150 light-years away. Now new observations and analysis indicate not only a cool temperature for RXJ J185635-375, pictured above, but also a larger distance: roughly 450 light-years away.
Pwyll: Icy Crater of Europa
13.04.2002
The impact crater Pwyll (a name from Celtic Mythology) is thought to represent one of the youngest features on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. A combination of color and high resolution black...
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