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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Tycho and Copernicus: Lunar Ray Craters
4.03.2005
Dazzling in binoculars or a small telescope, the Moon is pocked with impact craters. During partial lunar phases, the craters along the terminator are cast in dramatic relief by strong shadows. But when the Moon is full some craters seem to sprout systems of bright radial lines or rays.
NGC 1427A: Galaxy in Motion
3.03.2005
In this tantalizing image, young blue star clusters and pink star-forming regions abound in NGC 1427A, a galaxy in motion. The small irregular galaxy's swept back outline points toward the top of this...
Still Life with NGC 2170
2.03.2005
In this beautiful celestial still life composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170 shines at the upper left. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae and a compact red emission region against a backdrop of stars.
The Powerful Sumatra Andaman Islands Earthquake
1.03.2005
December's 9.0 earthquake has likely shortened Earth's day by about three microseconds and may also have tweaked Earth's rotational wobble. The megathrust earthquake occurred as the Indian tectonic plate slid further beneath the Burma tectonic plate.
NGC 1531/2: Interacting Galaxies
28.02.2005
This dramatic image of an interacting pair of galaxies was made using 8-meter Gemini South telescope at Cerro Pachon, Chile. NGC 1531 is the background galaxy with a bright core just above center and NGC 1532 is the foreground spiral galaxy laced with dust lanes.
Unusual Plates on Mars
27.02.2005
What are those unusual plates on Mars? A leading current interpretation holds that they are blocks of ice floating on a recently frozen sea covered by dust. The unusual plates were photographed recently by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft currently orbiting Mars.
The Solar Spectrum
26.02.2005
It is still not known why the Sun's light is missing some colors. Shown above are all the visible colors of the Sun, produced by passing the Sun's light through a prism-like device.
Frizion Illume
25.02.2005
Scientific images of cosmic dust clouds or even frozen water can be esthetic too. In fact, this picture of thin layers of forming ice crystals uses a scientific understanding of light's wave properties solely for artistic purposes. Titled "Illume", the picture was created by astrophysicist Peter Wasilewski.
Saturn s Dragon Storm
24.02.2005
Dubbed the "Dragon Storm", convoluted, swirling cloud features are tinted orange in this false-color, near-infrared image of Saturn's southern hemisphere. In one of a series of discoveries announced by Cassini researchers, the Dragon...
Ski Enceladus
23.02.2005
Small, icy, inner moon of Saturn, Enceladus is only about 500 kilometers in diameter. But the distant world does reflect over 90 percent of the sunlight it receives, giving its surface about the same reflectivity as fresh snow.
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