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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
The Small Cloud of Magellan
19.07.1997
The southern sky contains wonders almost unknown in the north. These wonders include the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds: small irregular galaxies orbiting our own larger Milky Way spiral galaxy. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), pictured here, is about 250,000 light years away.
Blue Stars and Red Pillars
18.07.1997
Bright blue stars are still forming in the red pillars of the Eagle Nebula. Made famous by a picture from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, the Eagle Nebula shows the dramatic process of star formation. To the upper right of the nebula in the above picture lies the heart of the open cluster M16.
A Message from Earth
17.07.1997
What are these Earthlings trying to tell us? The above message was broadcast from Earth towards the globular star cluster M13 in 1974. During the dedication of the Arecibo Observatory - still the largest radio telescope in the world - a string of 1's and 0's representing the above diagram was sent.
Mars: Yogi And Friends in 3D
16.07.1997
A ramp from the Pathfinder lander, the Sojourner robot rover, airbags, a couch, Barnacle Bill, and Yogi Rock appear together in this 3D stereo view of the surface of Mars. Barnacle Bill is the rock just left of the solar-paneled Sojourner and Yogi is the big friendly-looking boulder at the right.
Vega
15.07.1997
Vega is a bright blue star 25 light years away. Vega is the brightest star in the Summer Triangle, a group of stars easily visible summer evenings in the northern hemisphere. The name Vega...
Mars: Twin Peaks In Stereo
14.07.1997
Get out your red/blue glasses and gaze across the surface of Mars in stereo. You are looking south of west across an ancient flood channel, Ares Vallis, landing site of the Mars Pathfinder.
Vela Supernova Remnant in Optical
13.07.1997
About 11,000 years ago a star in the constellation of Vela exploded. This bright supernova may have been visible to the first human farmers. Today the Vela supernova remnant marks the position of a relatively close and recent explosion in our Galaxy. A roughly spherical, expanding shock wave is visible in X-rays.
Doomed Star Eta Carinae
12.07.1997
Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun - make it an excellent candidate for a full blown supernova.
Yogi Rock
11.07.1997
This portrait of Yogi Rock, a now famous boulder on Mars, was recorded on Sol 3 by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP). Big and friendly looking like its Earth cartoon namesake Yogi Bear, Yogi Rock is a prominent visible feature at the Pathfinder landing site.
Sojourner's View: The Sagan Memorial Station
10.07.1997
The robot rover Sojourner sees Mars from the perspective of a house cat. During the 7 month cruise to Mars aboard the Pathfinder spacecraft, Sojourner measured only seven inches tall in a stowed position but prowling the martian landscape it has stretched to its full height of 1 foot (30 centimeters).
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