... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. January 1, 1998 . The Largest Rock Known . Credit: Voyager 1, NASA . Explanation: There, that faint dot in the center - that's the largest rock known. It is larger than every known asteroid , moon , and comet nucleus . ... Happy Gregorian Calendar New Year to all the human inhabitants of this rock we call Earth . ... About APOD > . ...

... ESO is building what will be the World's largest optical telescope array, The Very Large Telescope (VLT). The VLT Project organisation is responsible for the design and construction of the Unit Telescopes, including enclosures, optics, adapter-rotators and coating unit. ... Unit Telescopes Overview - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ... Secondary mirror (M2 Unit) - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ... Coating Unit - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ...

... Ice Cusps on Europa . ... 9.06.1998 . ... Credit: Galileo Project , JPL , NASA Explanation: Europa's icy crust has many unusual features. ... Europa is one of the largest moons of Jupiter , and is thought to have oceans of water underneath its ice-covered surface. ... June 1998 . ... 1997 1998 . ... NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers . ... Publications with keywords: Jupiter - Europa - ice - surface . Publications with words: Jupiter - Europa - ice - surface . ... Gibbous Europa . ...

... A riel and Titania appear quite similar though Titania is 35% larger. All of Uranus' large moons are a mixture of about 40-50% water ice with the rest rock, a somewhat larger fraction of rock than Saturn 's large moons such as Rhea . A riel's surface is a mixture of cratered terrain and systems of interconnected valleys hundreds of kilometers long (left, above) and more than 10 km deep. This is similar to, but much larger and more extensive than the situation on Titania. ... Uranus .. ...

Pandora . Saturn X - 1980S26 . Pandora [pan-DOR-uh] is the fourth of Saturn's known satellites. ... Pandora is the outer shepherd satellite for Saturn's F-ring. ... Very limited data is available to analyze Pandora. ... The leading side faces forwards in the orbit of Pandora. ... Prometheus and Pandora . This image shows Prometheus and Pandora next to Saturn's F-ring. ... Stooke, P. J., "Shapes and Surface Features of Prometheus and Pandora," Earth, Moon and Planets , 62 (1993), 199-221. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Armagh Planetarium . ... Moon . ... Space Flight . ... Science Fiction . UFOs and Fringe Science . Monthly Sky Notes . ... NASA's Cassini spacecraft obtained this image of Saturn's moon Helene on June 18, 2011. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute) . ... Your email address will not be published. ... Email * . ... Here you will find the latest news and views from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration. ...

... In summer 1994, the biggest news in astronomy was the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter. During this school year, Jupiter will charge back into the limelight with the arrival of the Galileo spacecraft (see figure 8 ). On Dec. 7, following a tortuous six-year ramble through the solar system, Galileo will begin its two-year mission studying Jupiter and its gaggle of moons. ... Besides the camera, Galileo will carry instruments capable of identifying minerals on Jupiter's moons. ...

These images, taken by New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), show numerous large-scale features on Pluto's surface. When various large, dark, and bright regions appear near limbs, they give Pluto a distinct, but false, non-spherical appearance. ... These images are displayed at four times the native LORRI image size and have been processed using a method called deconvolution, which sharpens the original images to enhance features on Pluto. ...

... 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. ...

... Ж.Ф. Родионова, А.А.Карлов, Т.П. Скобелева и др. ... Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, 119899, Moscow, Russia; jeanna@sai.msu ru. ... Moscow State University, Vorobjovy Gory, 119899, Moscow, Russia. Brown University - Vernadsky Institute Microsymposium 34, October 8-9, 2001, Moscow, Russia . ... Rodionova J1., ... Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, Moscow University, jeanna@sai.msu.ru . ... 1 Sternberg State Astronomical Institute Lomonosov Moscow University, Russia; marss8@mail.ru . ...

. Fig. The SOHO/EIT 171 image (a) illustrating a pronounced transequatorial inverted V-shaped chain 1-2-3-4 which appears to outline the large soft X-ray CH observed with the Yohkoh/SXT (b) on March 1-2, 1999. The BBSO H-alpha (c) and MLSO/HAO He I 10830 (d) heliograms are shown to demonstrate relation of this and some other EUV chains to other large-scale structures such as H-alpha filaments and He I 10830 features. Back to paper .

Image credit: Michael Nolan, Arecibo Observatory. These radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2001 SN263 were obtained on 2008 Feb 12 and 13. ... Image from Feb 12 . ... First near-Earth triple asteroid discovered by Arecibo Observatory . ... was discovered this week by astronomers at the sensitive radar telescope at Cornell University?s Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. ... For example, Arecibo has discovered more than half of the near-Earth binary asteroid systems discovered since 1999. ...

... Today this year's largest group of sunspots will cross the Sun's central meridian. ... The next day, the number of spots in the group reached five, and the day after, on June 2nd, it was possible to count thirteen sunspots on solar disk, which had been clear prior to this. ... This year's two most powerful active areas, which passed across the solar disk at the beginning of May, 2009, are set to appear in the Sun's eastern sector in two days, on June 6th. ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . An artistтАЩs impression of the binary UZ For and planet . ... A team of astronomers, including Dr Gavin Ramsay of the Armagh Observatory, has found evidence that suggests the existence of an extraordinary planetary system. Two giant planets appear to be revolving at some distance around a compact, interacting stellar binary known as UZ For, which comprises two small stars orbiting very closely one about the other. ...

M1 image More About M1 Nice Color Picture . ... M16 image More About M16 HST image . ... M31 image More About M31 Nice Color Picture . ... M42 image ; M43 image More About M42/43 Nice Color CCD Picture . M51 image More About M51 Color Image of M51 M51 Supernova . M57 image More About M57 Nice Color CCD Picture Very Deep M57 Image . ... M81 image More About M81 M81 Supernova Ultraviolet Image of M81 More about Ultraviolet Imaging . M82 image More About M82 M82 False Color M82 True Color . ...

We present IRAC and MIPS images and photometry of a sample of previously known planetary nebulae (PNe) from the Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (SAGE) survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) performed with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Of the 233 known PNe in the survey field, 185 objects were detected in at least two of the IRAC bands, and 161 detected in the MIPS 24 ЮМm images. ... We also explore the potential value of IR PNe luminosity functions (LFs) in the LMC. ...

Orbit . ... The orbit of the RadioAstron provides four types of study: . rough images of radio sources with ultra-high angular resolution, using all baselines up to the radius of the apogee, that is much larger than Earth diameter; . ... high quality imaging of radio sources, with moderate resolution, by observing either with small projected base lines Earth-spacecraft, i.e. close to the orbital plane, or near the perigee. ... high accuracy orbit determination. ... Space Radio Telescope . ...

... A rough estimation is that in the United States there is one planetarium per 100,000 population, ranging in size from the Hayden Planetarium's 20-meter dome seating 430 people, to three-meter inflatable portable domes where children sit on the floor. ... Together dblo associates make a huge impact in the architecture, interior design and development arena in London. ... With the holidays around the corner what better way to spoil your family than with your very own private home cinema. ...