December
05, 2007 Astronomy Picture of the Day

This dramatic image features a dark red Moon during a
total lunar eclipse -- celestial shadow play enjoyed by many denizens of planet Earth last
Saturday. Recorded near Wildon, Austria, the picture is a composite of two exposures; a
relatively short exposure to feature the lunar surface and a longer exposure to capture
background stars in the constellation Leo. |
December 04,
2007 Astronomy Picture of the Day 
The center of our Milky Way Galaxy is hidden from the prying eyes of
optical telescopes by clouds of obscuring dust and gas. But in this stunning vista, the
Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared cameras, penetrate much of the dust revealing the stars
of the crowded galactic center region. A mosaic of many smaller snapshots, the detailed,
false-color image shows older, cool stars in bluish hues. Reddish glowing dust clouds are
associated with young, hot stars in stellar nurseries. The galactic center lies some
26,000 light-years away, toward the constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this
picture spans about 900 light-years. |
December
03, 2007 Astronomy Picture of the Day

How massive can a normal star be? Estimates made from
distance, brightness and standard solar models had given one star in the open cluster
Pismis 24 over 200 times the mass of our Sun, making it a record holder. This star is the
brightest object located just to the right of the gas front in the above image. Close
inspection of images taken recently with the Hubble Space Telescope, however, have shown
that Pismis 24-1 derives its brilliant luminosity not from a single star but from three at
least. |
December 02, 2007 Astronomy Picture of the Day

An old crescent Moon shares the eastern sky over
Menton, France with the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster in this early morning
skyscape recorded just last Friday, June 23rd. (Bright Venus was also near the eastern
horizon, but is not pictured here.) Astronomical images of the well-known Pleiades often
show the cluster's alluring blue reflection nebulae, but they are washed out here by the
bright moonlight. Still, while the crescent Moon is overexposed, surface features can be
seen on the dim lunar night side illuminated by earthshine - light from sunlit planet
Earth. Of course, you can spot a young crescent Moon in the early evening sky tonight. |
December 01,
2007 Astronomy Picture of the Day 
A cosmic dust cloud sprawls across a rich field of stars in this
gorgeous wide field telescopic vista looking toward Corona Australis, the Southern Crown.
Probably less than 500 light-years away and effectively blocking light from more distant,
background stars in the Milky Way, the densest part of the dust cloud is about 8
light-years long. |
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