Astronomy Picture of the Day . The Helix Nebula from La Silla Observatory . ... The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. ... The above picture was taken by the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-meter Telescope at the European Southern Observatory 's La Silla Observatory . A close-up of the inner edge of the Helix Nebula shows complex gas knots of unknown origin . ... Spokes in the Helix Nebula . ...

... 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. ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . See also images taken on November 22nd . Image taken by Andy McCrea who says, . To me the comet appears yellowish and it has gone from star-like to a . ... More images from Andy McCrea here . ... The true explanation is that a very faint comet, known as periodic comet Holmes, produced a massive outburst of material and became a million times brighter than it was just a day earlier. ... More images from Andy McCrea . ...

... 2005 August 8 . Mars to Appear Normal This August . ... Regardless of numerous urban legends circulating, Mars will appear relatively normal in 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. ... About APOD | ...

. Pulkovo Observatory of Russian Academy of Sciences is situated . near Saint-Petersburg. It was founded in 1839. 196140, Saint-Petersburg, Pulkovskoye chaussee 65/1 . English version . Russian version . This page has been accessed times since May 1, 1999.

... Planets . ... Earth Satellites . ... Looking in the direction of the constellation Cygnus the Swan and launched by NASA in 2009 is the Kepler Space Observatory.Many previous missions searching for exoplanets mainly detected large giant planets, like large hot Jupiters (it is easier to detect larger planets).However KeplerтАЩs main objective is to search for much smaller planets located in a habitable zone which is not too close nor too far from their star; planets which may be just like our Earth. ...

The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at ESO s Paranal Observatory in Chile has obtained the sharpest view ever of the dusty disk around the close pair of aging stars IRAS 08544-4431. For the first time, such disks can be compared to the disks around young stars and they look surprisingly similar. ... The inset shows the VLTI reconstructed image, with the brighter central star removed. The background view shows the surroundings of this star in the constellation Vela the Sails. ...

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... Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics . ANU College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences . EXPLORE ANU . ... Research . ... ANU College of . ... SEARCH . ... Search query . Search . Search query Search button . ... Intranet . MSO intranet . ANU Outlook 365 login . ... The Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) website has moved to http://rsaa.anu.edu.au . Please visit the RSAA site for more information about the school, our research, or observatories. ...

... Indiana Jones is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. ... There's the intrigue of the megaliths of Stonehenge, the ancient pyramids of Egypt, the earthen figures of Britain and Peru, and the bloody rituals of the Maya. ... To make sense of these great structures and sophisticated concepts, archaeologists and astronomers have pooled their talents. ... People could use these alignments to synchronize their calendars or track the exact path of a celestial object. ... Maya glyphs of Venus. ...

Supernova 1987A in LMC . One day in 1987, an astronomer by the name of Ian Shelton was making observations of the Tarantula Nebula in Large Magellanic cloud at Las Campanas Observatory, and he noticed something strange on his image. ... SN 1987A got as bright as 2.7, the only other recent SN even to come close was 1885A in M31 which got up to mag 6. ... Mag 4.5 . ... IAUC 4318 2/25/87 Type II? ... IAUC 7354 2/1/00 New structure in the inner ring . ... IAUC 7360 2/7/00 HST observation of new spot . ...

. " The Arecibo Observatory is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations . expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."