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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Driving To The Sun
12.12.1998
How long would it take to drive to the Sun? Brittany, age 7, and D.J., age 12, ponder this question over dinner one evening. James, also age 7, suggests taking a really fast racing car while Christopher, age 4, eagerly agrees.
High Redshift Quasars
11.12.1998
Each red speck indicated above is a powerful quasar estimated to be over 100 times brighter than a galaxy. Yet in these Sloan Digital Sky Survey discovery images the quasars appear faint because they are extremely distant.
Assembling The International Space Station
10.12.1998
Batteries and solar panels were included with this version of the International Space Station (ISS) but some assembly is still required. On Saturday, December 5th, the STS-88 crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavor achieved the in orbit docking of the Zarya and Unity (foreground) ISS modules.
NGC 253: The Sculptor Galaxy
9.12.1998
NGC 253 is not only one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, it is also one of the dustiest. Discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel in the constellation of Sculptor, NGC 253 lies only about ten million light-years distant.
Leonids from Leo
8.12.1998
Is Leo leaking? Leo, the famous sky constellation visible on the left of the above all-sky photograph, appears to be the source of all the meteors seen in this year's Leonids Meteor Shower.
Star Forming Region RCW38
7.12.1998
Star cluster RCW38 was hiding. This open cluster of stars is located about 5000 light years away towards the constellation of Vela. Looking there will not normally reveal most of the stars in this cluster, though.
CG4: A Ruptured Cometary Globule
6.12.1998
The odd looking "creature" to the right of center in the above photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured. Cometary globules are typically characterized by dusty heads and elongated tails.
Surveyor Hops
5.12.1998
This panorama of the cratered lunar surface was constructed from images returned by the US Surveyor 6 lander. Surveyor 6 was not the first spacecraft to accomplish a soft landing on the Moon ... but it was the first to land and then lift off again!
Centaurus A: The Galaxy Deep Inside
4.12.1998
Deep inside Centaurus A, the closest active galaxy to Earth, lies ... another galaxy! Cen A is a giant elliptical galaxy a mere 10 million light-years distant with a central jumble of stars, dust, and gas that probably hides a massive black hole.
Deep Space 1
3.12.1998
Going gently into the night, Deep Space 1's ion drive has been running smoothly since it was restarted on November 24. How powerful is this high-tech spacecraft's ion propulsion system? At full...
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