|
Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Supermoon Over Paris
7.05.2012
Did you see that full Moon Saturday night? Dubbed a supermoon, the latest fully illuminated moon appeared slightly larger than usual because it occurred unusually near the closest point in its orbit to Earth. Pictured above, the supermoon was captured Saturday night rising behind the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
In the Center of the Omega Nebula
6.05.2012
In the depths of the dark clouds of dust and molecular gas known as the Omega Nebula, stars continue to form. The above image from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys shows exquisite detail in the famous star-forming region.
Full Moonrise
5.05.2012
Rising as the Sun sets, tonight's Full Moon could be hard to miss. Remarkably, its exact full phase (May 6 03:36 UT) will occur less than two minutes after it reaches perigee, the closest point to Earth in the Moon's orbit, making it the largest Full Moon of 2012.
Fermi Epicyles: The Vela Pulsar s Path
4.05.2012
Exploring the cosmos at extreme energies, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope orbits planet Earth every 95 minutes. By design, it rocks to the north and then to the south on alternate orbits in order to survey the sky with its Large Area Telescope (LAT).
M106 Close Up
3.05.2012
Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106.
Saturns Moon Helene in Color
2.05.2012
Although its colors may be subtle, Saturn's moon Helene is an enigma in any light. The moon was imaged in unprecedented detail last June as the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn swooped to within a single Earth diameter of the diminutive moon.
Higgs Boson Explained by Cartoon
1.05.2012
What is all this fuss about the Higgs boson? The physics community is abuzz that a fundamental particle expected by the largely successful Standard Model of particle physics may be soon be found by the huge Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Europe.
Aurora Over RaufarhЖfn
30.04.2012
It was all lined up even without the colorful aurora exploding overhead. If you follow the apex line of the recently deployed monuments of Arctic Henge in RaufarhЖfn in northern Iceland from this vantage point, you will see that they point due north.
A Dangerous Sunrise on Gliese 876d
29.04.2012
On planet Gliese 876d, sunrises might be dangerous. Although nobody really knows what conditions are like on this close-in planet orbiting variable red dwarf star Gliese 876, the above artistic illustration gives one impression.
Sutter s Mill Meteorite
28.04.2012
Last Sunday's bright fireball meteor falling through skies over California and Nevada produced sonic booms over a broad area around 7:21 am. Estimates indicate the meteor was about the size of a minivan.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||