Astronomy is the study of the cosmos. Some treat it as a serious science and others as an enjoyable pastime. That is why, whenever an astronomy picture of the day is offered to the public, people usually jump at the chance. There are plenty of astronomical pictures to choose from, and plenty of interesting celestial objects to keep people looking.
Of course ,NASA is one of the primary sources for an astronomy picture of the day. This site, NASA.gov, shows a new photo each and every day. There is also a section that shows movies. These could be used to create your own photo site. Saturn's moon Enceladus was the 'star' feature on November 5, 2008.
This footage was taken by a passing spacecraft. It can reproduce details the size of a bus. The ice on this moon reflects as glare, nearly 100% of all the sun light that hits it. So you would need to wear sunglasses! This moon is so unusual that Cassini will continue to fly by for more images later on in its mission.
NASA maintains an archive of all the astronomy footage of the day dating all the way back to June 16 of 1995. It was a 'what if' image of the Earth posing as a neutron star. The footage is a computer generation. The most interesting feature is that the constellation Orion is visible twice. Even light from behind a neutron star is visible because the dense star bends the light all the way around it. This causes some double vision.
The entry for September 8th, 1995 was an amazing image of the central part of the 'Milky Way' galaxy taken by NASA's COBE satellite. This area is generally invisible because of the dust hiding it. But COBE scans in infrared, so produced that fantastic image of our very symmetrical galaxy.
The astronomy picture of the day was the same on January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2001. The reason both dates shared this picture is that most people considered the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.
However, the third millennium actually commenced on January 1st, 2001. NASA decided it was just better to just do it on both dates. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html displays man's view of the universe as it progressed from mere objects orbiting the Earth, all the way to the 'Big Bang' creating the universe as we know it today.
NASA has thousands more days with their very own unique astronomy picture of the day. Visit their web site, NASA.gov to see them.
Of course ,NASA is one of the primary sources for an astronomy picture of the day. This site, NASA.gov, shows a new photo each and every day. There is also a section that shows movies. These could be used to create your own photo site. Saturn's moon Enceladus was the 'star' feature on November 5, 2008.
This footage was taken by a passing spacecraft. It can reproduce details the size of a bus. The ice on this moon reflects as glare, nearly 100% of all the sun light that hits it. So you would need to wear sunglasses! This moon is so unusual that Cassini will continue to fly by for more images later on in its mission.
NASA maintains an archive of all the astronomy footage of the day dating all the way back to June 16 of 1995. It was a 'what if' image of the Earth posing as a neutron star. The footage is a computer generation. The most interesting feature is that the constellation Orion is visible twice. Even light from behind a neutron star is visible because the dense star bends the light all the way around it. This causes some double vision.
The entry for September 8th, 1995 was an amazing image of the central part of the 'Milky Way' galaxy taken by NASA's COBE satellite. This area is generally invisible because of the dust hiding it. But COBE scans in infrared, so produced that fantastic image of our very symmetrical galaxy.
The astronomy picture of the day was the same on January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2001. The reason both dates shared this picture is that most people considered the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.
However, the third millennium actually commenced on January 1st, 2001. NASA decided it was just better to just do it on both dates. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html displays man's view of the universe as it progressed from mere objects orbiting the Earth, all the way to the 'Big Bang' creating the universe as we know it today.
NASA has thousands more days with their very own unique astronomy picture of the day. Visit their web site, NASA.gov to see them.
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Astronomy: pictures of the day are fascinating to huge numbers of people. If you are interested in astronomy, visit our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com
