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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Philae Lander Found on Comet 67P
12.09.2016
A little spacecraft that was presumed lost has now been found. In 2014, the Philae lander slowly descended from its parent Rosette spacecraft to the nucleus of Comet C67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At the surface, after a harpoon malfunction, the lander bounced softly twice and eventually sent back images from an unknown location.
All the Water on Planet Earth
11.09.2016
How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius.
The Launch of OSIRIS REx
10.09.2016
Near sunset on Thursday, clear skies saw the launch of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Sporting a single solid rocket booster, its Atlas V vehicle blasts off from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 in this low, wide-angle view toward launch pad and setting Sun. OSIRIS-REx is bound for Bennu, scheduled to encounter the mountain-sized asteroid in 2018.
The Wide and Deep Lagoon
9.09.2016
Ridges of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds inhabit the turbulent, cosmic depths of the Lagoon Nebula. Also known as M8, the bright star forming region is about 5,000 light-years distant.
Mars in the Clouds
8.09.2016
Wandering through this stunning field of view, Mars really is in front of these colorful cosmic clouds. The mosaic contructed from telescopic images is about 5 degrees (10 full moons) across. It captures...
Eclipse to Sunset
7.09.2016
September's eclipse of the Sun is documented in the 68 frames of this timelapse composite. Starting at 1pm local time a frame every 4 minutes follow's the progress of the New Moon across the solar disk.
The Whirlpool Galaxy and Beyond
6.09.2016
Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl, until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog.
Spiral Meteor through the Heart Nebula
5.09.2016
What is this meteor doing? Dynamically, the unusually short and asymmetric train may indicate that the sand-sized grain at the center of the glow is momentarily spinning as it ablates, causing its path to be slightly spiral.
Io over Jupiter from Voyager 1
4.09.2016
Back in 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft flew past Jupiter and its moons. The images in this mosaic, featuring the moon Io against a background of gas giant Jupiter's diffuse swirling cloud bands, were recorded by Voyager's camera from a distance of about 8.3 million kilometers.
Reunion Island Eclipse
3.09.2016
The New Moon's dark shadow crossed planet Earth on September 1. In silhouette the Moon didn't quite cover the Sun though, creating an an annular solar eclipse. The shadow's narrow central path was about 100 kilometers wide at maximum eclipse.
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