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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Comet ISON Rising
27.11.2013
Will Comet ISON survive tomorrow's close encounter with the Sun? Approaching to within a solar diameter of the Sun's surface, the fate of one of the most unusual comets of modern times will finally be determined.
Cap Cloud over the Sierra Nevadas
26.11.2013
One might say this was a bell weather day for the Sierra Nevada mountains. In January, just as the Sun was setting above the district of AlbayzMn in Grenada, Spain, a huge cloud appeared as a bell capping the Veleta peak.
Anemic Spiral NGC 4921 from Hubble
25.11.2013
How far away is spiral galaxy NGC 4921? Although presently estimated to be about 310 million light years distant, a more precise determination could be coupled with its known recession speed to help humanity better calibrate the expansion rate of the entire visible universe.
Comet Hale Bopp Over Indian Cove
24.11.2013
Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, was quite a sight. In the above photograph taken on 1997 April 6, Comet Hale-Bopp was imaged from the Indian Cove Campground in the Joshua Tree National Park in California, USA. A flashlight was used to momentarily illuminate foreground rocks in this six minute exposure.
Comet ISON from STEREO
23.11.2013
Still intact, on November 21 Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) swept into this animated field of view (left) from the HI-1 camera on the STEREO-A spacecraft. The camera has also captured periodic Comet Encke, Mercury, and Earth, with the Sun cropped out of the frame at the right, the source of the billowing solar wind.
From California to the Pleiades
22.11.2013
An astronomical trip from the California Nebula to the Pleiades star cluster would cover just 12 degrees across planet Earth's night sky. That's equivalent to the angular extent of 25 Full Moons, as your telescope sweeps over the borders of the constellations Perseus and Taurus.
The Trail of a Minotaur
21.11.2013
Star trails arc above a moonlit beach and jetty in this serene sea and night skyscape. Captured on November 19, the single time exposure looks south down the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA.
Heavy Black Hole Jets in 4U1630 47
20.11.2013
What are black hole jets made of? Many black holes in stellar systems are surely surrounded by disks of gas and plasma gravitationally pulled from a close binary star companion. Some of this material...
Globular Cluster M15 from Hubble
19.11.2013
Stars, like bees, swarm around the center of bright globular cluster M15. This ball of over 100,000 stars is a relic from the early years of our Galaxy, and continues to orbit the Milky Way's center.
Aurora and Unusual Clouds Over Iceland
18.11.2013
What's happening in the sky? On this cold winter night in Iceland, quite a lot. First, in the foreground, lies the largest glacier in Iceland: Vatnajokull. On the far left, bright green auroras appear to emanate from the glacier as if it was a volcano. Aurora light is reflected by the foreground lake JZhkulsArlSn.
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