... Mars to Appear Normal this August . ... October is the best month to see Mars this year. ... As Earth catches up to Mars in their respective orbits around the Sun, Mars will keep rising earlier in the night. On 2005 October 30, Earth will have caught up to Mars and the planets will be the nearest to each other in their orbits -- this time around. On October 30, Mars will be nearly opposite to the Sun, rise at sunset, set at sunrise, and appear highest and brightest around midnight. ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. August 4, 1997 . A Rusty Sunset on Mars . Credit: IMP Team , JPL , NASA . Explanation: On Mars, sunsets can appear salmon pink. ... A day on Mars lasts 24.6 hours - very similar to Earth's, but a Martian year lasts almost twice as long as an Earth year. ... About APOD > . ... NASA Technical Rep.: ... A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC . ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Last week's Snack talked about how black holes can affect the environment around them in such a way as to be very bright . ... It's a common misconception that black holes always have matter swirling into them. ... As this matter gets closer and closer to the black hole it piles up and a large, fairly flat disk forms. This is called the accretion disk , because matter from this disk accretes (that is, falls in) on the black hole. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

... Circumstellar disc of beta Pictoris: constraints on grain properties from polarization. To appear in the Astronomy & Astrophysics . abs , src , ps ] . ... Dust influx to Titan from Hyperion . ... abs ] . ... Characteristics of bulges and disks in interacting galaxies . ... Dust grains around Herbig Ae/Be stars: porous, cometary-like grains? ... To appear in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement . ... Finally, Links may lead you to more options (e.g. via the LANL preprint system). ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. August 17, 1999 . A Crescent Sunrise . ... Explanation: Normally, the Moon shows phases, but the Sun does not. ... When the Moon is closer to the Sun than the Earth, only part of it appears to be lit - resulting in a familiar crescent-shaped phase . ... Nothing was wrong with Sun - viewers were witnessing the end of a solar eclipse . ...

... HST . What is the offset in the U2 direction that can be taken before a gap appears? ... HST Peer Review Process . ... HST Overview . Overview . ... Retrieving HST Data . ... HST Science Year in Review . ... What is the offset in the U2 direction that can be taken before a gap appears in the coverage of the sky between the two pointings? ... Same question for a U3 offset. ... This should allow you to accurately address the issue of optimal offsets in the mosaic. ...