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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
The Horsehead Nebula
15.12.2015
The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula in the center of the above photograph. The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque dust cloud that lies in front of the bright red emission nebula.
Colorful Arcs over Buenos Aires
14.12.2015
What are those colorful arcs in the sky? Like rainbows that are caused by rain, arcs of sunlight broken up into component colors can also result when ice crystals floating in Earth's atmosphere act together as a gigantic prism.
Pluto: From Mountains to Plains
13.12.2015
What do the sharpest views ever of Pluto show? As the robotic New Horizons spacecraft moves into the outer Solar System, it is now sending back some of the highest resolution images from its historic encounter with Pluto in July. Featured here is one recently-received, high-resolution image.
When Gemini Sends Stars to Paranal
12.12.2015
From a radiant point in the constellation of the Twins, the annual Geminid meteor shower rain down on planet Earth. Tonight, the Geminds reach their peak and could be quite spectacular. The featured blended image, however, captured the shower's impressive peak in the year 2012.
Comet Meets Moon and Morning Star
11.12.2015
A crescent Moon and brilliant Venus met in predawn skies on December 7, a beautiful conjunction of planet Earth's two brightest celestial beacons after the Sun. Harder to see but also on the scene was Comet Catalina (C/2013 US10).
The Brightest Spot on Ceres
10.12.2015
Dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the Solar System's main asteroid belt with a diameter of about 950 kilometers. Exploring Ceres from orbit since March, the Dawn spacecraft's camera...
Daytime Moon Meets Morning Star
9.12.2015
Venus now appears as Earth's brilliant morning star, standing in a line-up of planets above the southeastern horizon before dawn. For most, the silvery celestial beacon rose predawn in a close pairing with an old crescent Moon on Monday, December 7.
Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble
8.12.2015
This dance is to the death. Along the way, as these two large galaxies duel, a cosmic bridge of stars, gas, and dust currently stretches over 75,000 light-years and joins them. The bridge...
Icelandic Legends and Aurora
7.12.2015
Legends collide in this dramatic vista of land, sea, and sky. The land is Iceland, specifically VМk М MЩrdal, a southern village known for its beautiful black sand beaches. The sea, the Atlantic Ocean...
Comet Catalina Emerges
6.12.2015
Comet Catalina is ready for its close-up. The giant snowball from the outer Solar System, known formally as C/2013 US10 (Catalina), rounded the Sun last month and is now headed for its closest approach to Earth in January.
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