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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Olympus Mons on Mars: The Largest Volcano
15.09.1997
The largest volcano in the Solar System is on Mars. Olympus Mons rises 24 kilometers high and measures 550 km across. By comparison, Earth's largest volcano, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, rises 9 km high and measures 120 km across.
MyCn18: An Hourglass Nebula
14.09.1997
The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf.
Kepler Discovers How Planets Move
13.09.1997
Johannes Kepler used simple mathematics to describe how planets move. Kepler was an assistant to the most accurate astronomical observer of the time, Tycho Brahe. Kepler was able to use Brahe's data...
The Center of NGC 6251 is Glowing
12.09.1997
Something is lighting up the center of galaxy NGC 6251. Leading speculation holds that it is a large black hole not shrouded by gas and dust typically found near the center of a galaxy.
Mars Global Surveyor: Aerobraking
11.09.1997
Completing a 10 month journey, another spacecraft from Earth arrives at Mars today. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) is scheduled to fire its main rocket engine for 22 minutes at 6:17 p.m.
Comet Hale-Bopp Outbound
10.09.1997
Hale-Bopp, the Comet of the Century, is leaving the inner Solar System. Outbound at about 12 miles per second it is presently nearing the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This false-color image represents a recent view from low Earth orbit showing the comet surrounded by its shrinking coma against a background of stars.
A Green Flash from the Sun
9.09.1997
Many think it is just a myth. Others think it is true but its cause isn't known. Adventurers pride themselves on having seen it. It's a green flash from the Sun. The truth is the green flash does exist and its cause is well understood.
A Map of Asteroid Vesta
8.09.1997
Vesta is a huge rock 500 kilometers across that orbits out past Mars. Last week, the above map of Vesta created using the Hubble Space Telescope was released showing a rugged surface highlighted by a single crater spanning nearly the entire length of the asteroid.
Luna 9: First Soft Lander
7.09.1997
The Luna 9 spacecraft above performed the first soft landing on another planetary body. Following a series of failures, the Soviet probe touched down in the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum region February 3, 1966.
Isaac Newton Explains the Solar System
6.09.1997
Sir Isaac Newton changed the world. Born in 1643, Newton was only an above-average student. But he went home from Cambridge one summer in 1665, thought a lot about the physical nature of the world, and came back two years later with a revolutionary understanding of mathematics, gravitation, and optics.
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