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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
When Gemini Sends Stars to Paranal
13.12.2015
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
12.12.2015
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
11.12.2015
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
10.12.2015
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
9.12.2015
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
8.12.2015
Legends collide in this dramatic vista of land, sea, and sky. The land is Iceland, specifically VMk M MShrdal, a southern village known for its beautiful black sand beaches. The sea, the Atlantic Ocean...
Comet Catalina Emerges
7.12.2015
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.
A Force from Empty Space: The Casimir Effect
6.12.2015
This tiny ball provides evidence that the universe will expand forever. Measuring slightly over one tenth of a millimeter, the ball moves toward a smooth plate in response to energy fluctuations in the vacuum of empty space.
Kepler Orrery IV
5.12.2015
The exoplanet hunting Kepler mission's total for candidate and confirmed multiple planet systems stands at 1,705 worlds in orbit around 685 distant stars. Put all of those exoplanet orbits on the same scale and follow their relative orbital motions to get Kepler Orrery IV.
Cygnus: Bubble and Crescent
4.12.2015
These clouds of gas and dust drift through rich star fields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the high flying constellation Cygnus. Caught within the telescopic field of view are the Soap Bubble (lower left) and the Crescent Nebula (upper right).
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