|
Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
The Milky Way Near the Southern Cross
3.05.1996
This breathtaking patch of sky would be above you were you to stand at the south pole of the Earth. Just above and to the right of the photograph's center are the four stars that mark the boundaries of the famous Southern Cross.
The Tails of Comet Hyakutake
2.05.1996
What makes comet tails so colorful? This photograph of Comet Hyakutake was taken the night of April 18th and highlights different components of the tail. The gold and red tail features are dust, made predominately of little bits of rock and carbon. The dust tail shines by reflecting sunlight.
Comet Hyakutake and a Cactus
1.05.1996
Comet Hyakutake is shown photographed the night of March 27 in Arizona, USA, with a cactus in the foreground. Polaris, the north star, is the bright star seen just to the upper right of the comet's head. Today Comet Hyakutake reaches its closest approach to the Sun.
Uranus' Ring System
30.04.1996
The rings of Uranus are thin, narrow, and dark compared to other planetary ring systems. Brightened artificially by computer, the ring particles reflect as little light as charcoal, although they are really made of ice chucks darkened by rock.
Saturn's Rings Seen Sideways
29.04.1996
Saturn's rings are actually very thin. This picture from the Hubble Space Telescope was taken on August 6, 1995 when the rings lined up sideways as seen from Earth. Saturn's largest moon Titan is seen on the left, and Titan's shadow can be seen on Saturn's cloud tops!
The Sun Sets on Comet Hyakutake
28.04.1996
Comet Hyakutake is seen here just as the Sun sets on April 22. As April draws to a close, Comet Hyakutake will be visible only just after sunset and will be hard to discern against the brightly lit sky.
Apollo 14: Rickshaw Tracks Across the Moon
27.04.1996
Brilliant sunlight glints off tracks gently winding across the the Moon's Frau Maro highlands. The tracks were made by the Apollo 14 crew's two-wheeled Modularized Equipment Transporter (MET), fondly known as the "rickshaw". The MET was designed as an aid to surface exploration.
A Giant Globular Cluster in M31
26.04.1996
G1, pictured above, is the brightest known globular cluster in the whole Local Group of galaxies. Also called Mayall II, it orbits the center of the largest nearby galaxy: M31. G1 contains over 300,000 stars and is almost as old as the entire universe.
In the Center of the Whirlpool
25.04.1996
In the center of M51, a spiral galaxy 23 million light-years away, astronomers have identified a dense region of young stars. The graceful swirling arcs of this galaxy's spiral arms have inspired its popular name, "The Whirlpool Galaxy".
Giant Cluster Bends, Breaks Galaxy Images
24.04.1996
What are those strange blue objects? Many are images of a single, unusual, beaded, blue, ring-like galaxy which just happens to line-up behind a giant cluster of galaxies. Cluster galaxies here appear yellow and -- together with the cluster's dark matter -- act as a gravitational lens.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||