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Astronomy Picture of the Day |
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#26 |
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14.1.10
M94: A New Perspective Image Credit & Copyright: R Jay Gabany (Blackbird Obs.) Collaboration: I. Trujillo, I. Martinez-Valpuesta, D. Martinez-Delgado ( IAC); J. Penarrubia (IoA Cambridge); M. Pohlen (Cardiff) Explanation: Beautiful island universe M94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. A popular target for astronomers the brighter inner part of the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across. Traditionally, deep images have been interpreted as showing M94's inner spiral region surrounded by a faint, broad ring of stars. But a new multi-wavelength investigation has revealed previously undetected spiral arms sweeping across the outskirts of the galaxy's disk, an outer disk actively engaged in star formation. At optical wavelengths, M94's outer spiral arms are followed in this remarkable discovery image, processed to enhance the outer disk structure. Background galaxies are visible through the faint outer arms, while the three spiky foreground stars are in our own Milky Way galaxy. |
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#27 |
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15.1.10
Scenes from Two Hemispheres Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN) Explanation: The stars of a summer night on the left and the winter night sky on the right are the same stars. In fact, both pictures were taken in late December and have similar fields of view. The left panel shows a scene from a beach on Bruny Island off the coast of Tasmania, Australia, while the right panel features the sky over the snowy Alborz Mountains of northern Iran. |
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#28 |
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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Thanks for posting these pictures. They are spectacular.
I have added this thread to my subscription list and will check it everyday or when you post a new picture. Once again - thanks. |
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#29 |
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Quote:
Thanks for posting these pictures. They are spectacular.
I have added this thread to my subscription list and will check it everyday or when you post a new picture. Once again - thanks. |
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#30 |
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Quote:
15.1.10
Scenes from Two Hemispheres Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN) Explanation: The stars of a summer night on the left and the winter night sky on the right are the same stars. In fact, both pictures were taken in late December and have similar fields of view. The left panel shows a scene from a beach on Bruny Island off the coast of Tasmania, Australia, while the right panel features the sky over the snowy Alborz Mountains of northern Iran. It is lovely to see a novel idea. I have never seen that done before. Brilliant. A great idea of yours to make APOD into a thread. I was was first made aware of APOD some years ago. Someone told me that he had made APOD his home page. Now that is an idea. |
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#31 |
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Quote:
It is lovely to see a novel idea. I have never seen that done before. Brilliant.
A great idea of yours to make APOD into a thread. I was was first made aware of APOD some years ago. Someone told me that he had made APOD his home page. Now that is an idea. |
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#32 |
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16.1.10
New Year Sungrazer Credit: LASCO, SOHO Consortium, NRL, ESA, NASA Explanation: Intense and overwhelming, the direct glare of the Sun is blocked by the smooth occulting disk in this image from the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft. Taken on January 3rd, an extreme ultraviolet image of the Sun to scale, is superimposed at the center of the disk. Beyond the disk's outer boundary is a sungrazer comet, one of the brightest yet seen by SOHO. The comet was discovered (movie link) by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, while examining earlier images from another sun-watching spacecraft, STEREO-A. Based on their orbits, sungrazers are believed to belong to the Kreutz family of comets, created by successive break ups from a single large parent comet that passed very near the Sun in the twelfth century. Subjected to strong tidal forces and intense solar heat, this sungrazer comet did not survive its close encounter. |
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#33 |
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Quote:
15.1.10
Scenes from Two Hemispheres Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN) Explanation: The stars of a summer night on the left and the winter night sky on the right are the same stars. In fact, both pictures were taken in late December and have similar fields of view. The left panel shows a scene from a beach on Bruny Island off the coast of Tasmania, Australia, while the right panel features the sky over the snowy Alborz Mountains of northern Iran. |
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#34 |
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POst not showing.
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#35 |
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17.1.10
Atlantis to Orbit Credit: NASA Explanation: Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on, nor could any human just a millennium ago. The launch of a rocket bound for space is an event that inspires awe and challenges description. Pictured above, the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off to visit the International Space Station during the early morning hours of 2001 July 12. From a standing start, the two million kilogram rocket ship left to circle the Earth where the outside air is too thin to breathe and where there is little noticeable onboard gravity. Rockets bound for space are now launched from somewhere on Earth about once a week. |
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#36 |
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Quote:
17.1.10
Atlantis to Orbit Credit: NASA Explanation: Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on, nor could any human just a millennium ago. The launch of a rocket bound for space is an event that inspires awe and challenges description. Pictured above, the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off to visit the International Space Station during the early morning hours of 2001 July 12. From a standing start, the two million kilogram rocket ship left to circle the Earth where the outside air is too thin to breathe and where there is little noticeable onboard gravity. Rockets bound for space are now launched from somewhere on Earth about once a week. |
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#37 |
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18.1.10
Eclipse over the Temple of Poseidon Credit & Copyright: Chris Kotsiopoulos & Anthony Ayiomamitis (TWAN) Explanation: What's happened to the Sun? The Moon moved to partly block the Sun for a few minutes last week as a partial solar eclipse became momentarily visible across part of planet Earth. In the above single exposure image, meticulous planning enabled careful photographers to capture the partially eclipsed Sun well posed just above the ancient ruins of the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio, Greece. Unexpectedly, clouds covered the top of the Sun, while a flying bird was caught in flight just to the right of the eclipse. At its fullest extent from some locations, the Moon was seen to cover the entire middle of the Sun, leaving the surrounding ring of fire of an annular solar eclipse. The next solar eclipse -- a total eclipse of the Sun -- will occur on 2010 July 11 but be visible only from a thin swath of the southern Pacific Ocean and near the very southern tip of South America. |
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#38 |
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That's stunning - thanks for updating us on these pictures
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#39 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Quote:
18.1.10
Eclipse over the Temple of Poseidon Credit & Copyright: Chris Kotsiopoulos & Anthony Ayiomamitis (TWAN) Explanation: What's happened to the Sun? The Moon moved to partly block the Sun for a few minutes last week as a partial solar eclipse became momentarily visible across part of planet Earth. In the above single exposure image, meticulous planning enabled careful photographers to capture the partially eclipsed Sun well posed just above the ancient ruins of the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio, Greece. Unexpectedly, clouds covered the top of the Sun, while a flying bird was caught in flight just to the right of the eclipse. At its fullest extent from some locations, the Moon was seen to cover the entire middle of the Sun, leaving the surrounding ring of fire of an annular solar eclipse. The next solar eclipse -- a total eclipse of the Sun -- will occur on 2010 July 11 but be visible only from a thin swath of the southern Pacific Ocean and near the very southern tip of South America. I saw this picture a few days ago. Great to think it has made it on to APOD. |
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#40 |
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19.1.10
Dark Sand Cascades on Mars Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA Explanation: They might look like trees on Mars, but they're not. Groups of dark brown streaks have been photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost. The above image was taken in 2008 April near the North Pole of Mars. At that time, dark sand on the interior of Martian sand dunes became more and more visible as the spring Sun melted the lighter carbon dioxide ice. When occurring near the top of a dune, dark sand may cascade down the dune leaving dark surface streaks -- streaks that might appear at first to be trees standing in front of the lighter regions, but cast no shadows. Objects about 25 centimeters across are resolved on this image spanning about one kilometer. Close ups of some parts of this image show billowing plumes indicating that the sand slides were occurring even when the image was being taken. |
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#41 |
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Today, an amazing video.
20.1.10
The Known Universe Credit & Copyright: American Museum of Natural History Explanation: What would it look like to travel across the known universe? To help humanity visualize this, the American Museum of Natural History has produced a modern movie featuring many visual highlights of such a trip. The video starts in Earth's Himalayan Mountains and then dramatically zooms out, showing the Earth's satellites, the Sun, the Solar System, the extent of humanities first radio signals, the Milky Way Galaxy, galaxies nearby, distant galaxies, and quasars. As the distant surface of the microwave background is finally reached, radiation is depicted that was emitted billions of light years away and less than one million years after the Big Bang. Frequently using the Digital Universe Atlas, every object in the video has been rendered to scale given the best scientific research in 2009, when the video was produced. The film has similarities to the famous Powers of Ten video that has been a favorite of many space enthusiasts for a generation. |
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#42 |
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Thanks
That video is mind boggling. |
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#43 |
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Ah so it is the Astronomy video of the day today? Very interesting video. Feels like going on a spaceflight oneself.
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#44 |
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21.1.10
Dust and the NGC 7771 Group Credit & Copyright: Ken Crawford (Rancho Del Sol Observatory) Explanation: Galaxies of the NGC 7771 Group are featured in this intriguing skyscape. Some 200 million light-years distant toward the constellation Pegasus, NGC 7771 is the large, edge-on spiral near center, about 75,000 light-years across, with two smaller galaxies just below it. Large spiral NGC 7769 is seen face-on to the right. Galaxies of the NGC 7771 group are interacting, making repeated close passages that will ultimately result in galaxy-galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale. The interactions can be traced by galaxy distortions and faint streams of stars created by gravitational tides. But a clear view of the galaxy group is difficult to come by, as the deep image also reveals extensive clouds of foreground dust sweeping across the field. The dim, dusty nebulae reflect starlight from our own Milky Way Galaxy and lie only a few hundred light-years above the galactic plane |
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#45 |
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22.1.10
Millennium Annular Solar Eclipse Credit & Copyright: Mikael Svalgaard Explanation: The Moon's shadow raced across planet Earth on January 15. Observers within the central shadow track were able to witness an annular solar eclipse as the Moon's apparent size was too small to completely cover the Sun. A visually dramatic ring of fire, the annular phase lasted up to 11 minutes and 8 seconds depending on location, the longest annular solar eclipse for the next 1,000 years. This picture of the Moon's silhouette just before mid-eclipse was taken within the eclipse path from the city of Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India. The telescopic image was made through a filter that blocks most visible light, but still transmits light from hydrogen atoms. As a result, detailed mottling, or granulation, caused by heat convection in Sun's atmosphere can be seen around the dark lunar disk. |
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#46 |
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Join Date: Sep 2009
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Quote:
January 2nd Blue Moon Eclipse Credit & Copyright: Jean Paul Roux Explanation: The International Year of Astronomy 2009 ended with a Blue Moon and a partial lunar eclipse, as the second Full Moon of December grazed the Earth's shadow on December 31st. The New Year's Eve Blue Moon eclipse was visible throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and parts of Alaska, captured in this two exposure composite in cloudy skies over Saint Bonnet de Mure, France. Playing across the Moon's southern reaches, the edge of Earth's umbra, or dark central shadow, appears on the right side along with the prominent ray crater Tycho. At maximum eclipse, the umbra covered only about 8 percent of the diameter of the lunar disk. Clouds BEHIND the moon is far too fake for me. Sorry. |
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#47 |
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23.1.10
Eclipses in the Shade Credit & Copyright: Stephan Heinsius Explanation: Eclipses are everywhere in this shady scene. The picture was taken on the Indian Ocean atoll island of Ellaidhoo, Maldives, on January 15, during the longest annular solar eclipse for the next 1,000 years. Tall palm trees provided the shade. Their many crossed leaves created gaps that acted like pinhole cameras, scattering recognizable eclipse images across the white sands of a tropical garden near the beach. From this idyllic location near the centerline of the Moon's shadow track, the ring of fire or annular phase of the eclipse lasted about 10 minutes and 55 seconds. |
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#48 |
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Quote:
23.1.10
Eclipses in the Shade Credit & Copyright: Stephan Heinsius Explanation: Eclipses are everywhere in this shady scene. The picture was taken on the Indian Ocean atoll island of Ellaidhoo, Maldives, on January 15, during the longest annular solar eclipse for the next 1,000 years. Tall palm trees provided the shade. Their many crossed leaves created gaps that acted like pinhole cameras, scattering recognizable eclipse images across the white sands of a tropical garden near the beach. From this idyllic location near the centerline of the Moon's shadow track, the ring of fire or annular phase of the eclipse lasted about 10 minutes and 55 seconds. Everyone should try to see an eclipse of the sun at least once in their life. |
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#49 |
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Another video today.
24.1.10
Watch Jupiter Rotate Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute Explanation: What would it be like to coast by Jupiter and watch it rotate? This was just the experience of the New Horizons spacecraft as it approached and flew by Jupiter in 2007. Clicking on the image will bring up a movie of what the robotic spacecraft saw. Visible above in the extensive atmosphere of the Solar System's largest planet are bands and belts of light and dark clouds, as well as giant rotating storm systems seen as ovals. Other movies compiled by New Horizons and other passing spacecraft have captured the clouds swirling and moving relative to themselves. Jupiter has a diameter of about eleven times that of our Earth, and rotates once in about 10 hours. The robotic New Horizons spacecraft, launched four years ago last week, continues to speed toward the outer Solar System and has recently passed the halfway point between Earth and Pluto. New Horizons will reach Pluto in 2015. |
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#50 |
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25.1.10
The Magellanic Stream Credit: David L. Nidever et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF & A. Mellinger, LAB Survey, Parkes Obs., Westerbork Obs., Arecibo Obs. Explanation: Spanning the sky toward the majestic Clouds of Magellan is an unusual stream of gas: the Magellanic Stream. The origin of this gas remains unknown but likely hold a clue to origin and fate of our Milky Way's most famous satellite galaxies: the LMC and the SMC. Until recently, two leading genesis hypotheses have been considered: that the stream was created by gas stripped off these galaxies as they passed through the halo of our Milky Way, or that the stream was created by the differential gravitational tug of the Milky Way. Recently, however, wide angle radio images -- including those from the Byrd Green Bank Telescope -- have shown that the Magellanic Stream is longer and older than previously thought, perhaps as old as 2.5 billion years. These observations bolster a third possible origin for the stream -- that the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies once passed so close to each other that gravitational tides triggered a burst of star formation that left the stream. Pictured above digitally superposed on a recently-completed all-sky image in visible light, the radio emission of Magellanic stream is shown in false color pink extending across the sky and ending at the two Magellanic galaxies on the lower right. |
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