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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Aurora Astern
10.02.2001
Sailing upside down, 115 nautical miles above Earth, the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour made this spectacular time exposure of the southern aurora (aurora australis) in October of 1994. Aurora, also known as the northern and southern lights, appear as luminous bands or streamers of light which can extend to altitudes of 200 miles.
Nashville Four Planet Skyline
9.02.2001
So far this February, evening skies have been blessed with a glorious Moon and three bright planets; Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. But just last week, on January 30th, an extreme wide-angle lens allowed astrophotographer Larry Koehn to capture this twilight view of Moon and four planets
Distant Galaxies in Radio Vision
8.02.2001
Radio waves, like visible light, are electromagnetic radiation and radio telescopes can "see" -- their signals translated into radio images of the cosmos. While individually even the largest radio telescopes have very blurry vision compared to their optical counterparts, networks of radio telescopes can combine signals to produce sharper pictures.
Distant Open Cluster M103
7.02.2001
Bright blue stars highlight the open cluster known as M103. The gas clouds from which these stars condensed has long dispersed. Of the stars that were formed, the brightest, bluest, and most massive have already used up their nuclear fuel and self-destructed in supernova explosions.
Touchdown Site on Asteroid Eros
6.02.2001
The first controlled descent of a spacecraft onto an asteroid is scheduled to occur next week. The robot spacecraft NEAR-Shoemaker has been orbiting asteroid Eros for nearly one year On February 12, before maneuvering fuel wanes, NASA will command the craft to descend right down onto the surface.
Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula
5.02.2001
Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?
Welcome to Planet Earth
4.02.2001
Welcome to Planet Earth, the third planet from a star named the Sun. The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock. Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is water. The planet has a relatively thin atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen.
M100: A Grand Design
3.02.2001
Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a Grand Design spiral galaxy. A large galaxy of over 100 billion or so stars with well defined spiral arms, it is similar to our own Milky Way.
All-Sky Panorama
2.02.2001
This quite stunning panorama of the entire sky is a mosaic of 51 wide-angle photographs. Made over a three year period from locations in California (USA), South Africa, and Germany, the individual pictures were digitized and stitched together to create an apparently seamless 360 by 180 degree view.
Jupiter s Brain
1.02.2001
Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth. Famous for its Great Red Spot, Jupiter is also known for its regular, equatorial cloud bands, visible in very modest sized telescopes.
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