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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Bright Venus
8.03.2001
Have you seen a bright evening star in the western sky lately? That's no star, that's planet Venus the second "rock" from the Sun. Blazing at -4.6 magnitude, Venus, after the Sun and Moon, is the third brightest celestial body in planet Earth's sky.
Compton Returns
7.03.2001
On 2000 June 4, the 17-ton Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory returned to Earth after 9 years in orbit -- ending its remarkable voyage of discovery. The massive, bus-sized spacecraft carried an unprecedented array of gamma-ray detectors which explored the bizarre, high-energy universe of solar flares, black holes, pulsars, supernovae, active galaxies, and gamma-ray bursts.
M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
6.03.2001
The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of "annoying" diffuse objects not to be confused with "interesting" comets.
Survivor: NEAR Shoemaker On Asteroid Eros
5.03.2001
Not part of a television game series, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft survived its unprecedented landing on an on asteroid last month. As suggested in the illustration inset above, the car-sized probe likely rests gently on the tips of its solar panels having touched down under the influence of asteroid Eros' feeble gravity.
TT Cygni: Carbon Star
4.03.2001
TT Cygni is a cool red giant star with a wind. This false-color picture of TT Cyg was made using a coordinated array of millimeter wavelength radio telescopes and shows radio emission from carbon monoxide (CO) molecules in the surrounding gas.
Apollo 12 Visits Surveyor 3
3.03.2001
Apollo 12 was the second mission to land humans on the Moon. The landing site was picked to be near the location of Surveyor 3, a robot spacecraft that had landed on the Moon three years earlier.
LkHa101: The Hole in the Doughnut
2.03.2001
You'd need a really big cup of coffee with this doughnut ... because the hole in the middle is about a billion kilometers across. Centered on the Sun, a circle that size would lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Maximum Sun
1.03.2001
Astronomers recently witnessed an astounding, large scale solar event as the Sun's north and south magnetic poles changed places! But, this complete solar magnetic field flip was actually anticipated. It occurs every 11 years during the maximum of the solar activity cycle.
A Space Station Meets its Destiny
28.02.2001
The International Space Station (ISS) had a date with Destiny earlier this month. More specifically, the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis installed the science laboratory named Destiny on the ISS. Destiny, pictured here, will also serve as a control center for the Earth orbiting space station.
The Witch Head Nebula
27.02.2001
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble -- maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is associated with the bright star Rigel in the constellation Orion.
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