Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 November 29

Verona Rupes: Tallest Known Cliff in the Solar System
Image Credit: Voyager 2, NASA

Explanation: Could you survive a jump off the tallest cliff in the
Solar System? Quite possibly. Verona Rupes on Uranus' moon Miranda is
estimated to be 20 kilometers deep -- ten times the depth of the
Earth's Grand Canyon. Given Miranda's low gravity, it would take about
12 minutes for a thrill-seeking adventurer to fall from the top,
reaching the bottom at the speed of a racecar -- about 200 kilometers
per hour. Even so, the fall might be survivable given proper airbag
protection. The featured image of Verona Rupes was captured by the
passing Voyager 2 robotic spacecraft in 1986. How the giant cliff was
created remains unknown, but is possibly related to a large impact or
tectonic surface motion.

Tomorrow's picture: a starless space swan
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 November 30

Cygnus Without Stars
Image Credit & Copyright: Bowen James Cameron

Explanation: The sky is filled with faintly glowing gas, though it can
take a sensitive camera and telescope to see it. For example, this
twelve-degree-wide view of the northern part of the constellation
Cygnus reveals a complex array of cosmic clouds of gas along the plane
of our Milky Way galaxy. The featured mosaic of telescopic images was
recorded through two filters: an H-alpha filter that transmits only
visible red light from glowing hydrogen atoms, and a blue filter that
transmits primarily light emitted by the slight amount of energized
oxygen. Therefore, in this 18-hour exposure image, blue areas are
hotter than red. Further digital processing has removed the myriad of
point-like Milky Way stars from the scene. Recognizable bright nebulas
include NGC 7000 (North America Nebula), and IC 5070 (Pelican Nebula)
on the left with IC 1318 (Butterfly Nebula) and NGC 6888 (Crescent
Nebula) on the right -- but others can be found throughout the wide
field.

Tomorrow's picture: star forming cluster
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 1

NGC 346: Star Forming Cluster in the SMC
Image Credit & License: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Are stars still forming in the Milky Way's satellite
galaxies? Found among the Small Magellanic Cloud's (SMC's) clusters and
nebulas, NGC 346 is a star forming region about 200 light-years across,
pictured here in the center of a Hubble Space Telescope image. A
satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is
a wonder of the southern sky, a mere 210,000 light-years distant in the
constellation of the Toucan (Tucana). Exploring NGC 346, astronomers
have identified a population of embryonic stars strung along the dark,
intersecting dust lanes visible here on the right. Still collapsing
within their natal clouds, the stellar infants' light is reddened by
the intervening dust. Toward the top of the frame is another star
cluster with intrinsically older and redder stars. A small, irregular
galaxy, the SMC itself represents a type of galaxy more common in the
early Universe. These small galaxies, though, are thought to be
building blocks for the larger galaxies present today.

All 30: 2020 November APODs voiced by AI
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 2

Eye of Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Zachery Cooley

Explanation: Who's watching who? The featured image of the Moon through
a gap in a wall of rock may appear like a giant eye looking back at
you. Although, in late October, it took only a single exposure to
capture this visual double, it also took a lot of planning. The
photographic goal was achieved by precise timing -- needed for a nearly
full moon to appear through the eye-shaped arch, by precise locating --
needed for the angular size of the Moon to fit iconically inside the
rock arch, and by good luck -- needed for a clear sky and for the
entire scheme to work. The seemingly coincidental juxtaposition was
actually engineered with the help of three smartphone apps. The
pictured sandstone arch, carved by erosion, is millions of years old
and just one of thousands of natural rock arches that have been found
in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, USA. Contrastingly, the
pictured Moon can be found up in the sky from just about anywhere on
Earth, about half the time.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 3

The Antennae Galaxies in Collision
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble NASA

Explanation: Sixty million light-years away toward the southerly
constellation Corvus, these two large galaxies are colliding. The
cosmic train wreck captured in stunning detail in this Hubble Space
Telescope snapshot takes hundreds of millions of years to play out.
Cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, the galaxies' individual stars
don't often collide though. Their large clouds of molecular gas and
dust do, triggering furious episodes of star formation near the center
of the wreckage. New star clusters and interstellar matter are jumbled
and flung far from the scene of the accident by gravitational forces.
This Hubble close-up frame is about 50,000 light-years across at the
estimated distance of the colliding galaxies. In wider-field views
their suggestive visual appearance, with extended structures arcing for
hundreds of thousands of light-years, gives the galaxy pair its popular
name, The Antennae Galaxies.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 4

Curly Spiral Galaxy M63
Image Credit & Copyright: Fabian Neyer, Rainer Spani
Collaboration Credit: I.D. Karachentsev, F. Neyer, R. Spani, T. Zilch

Explanation: A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is
nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal
constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic
island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of
our own Milky Way. Its bright core and majestic spiral arms lend the
galaxy its popular name, The Sunflower Galaxy, while this exceptionally
deep exposure also follows faint, arcing star streams far into the
galaxy's halo. Extending nearly 180,000 light-years from the galactic
center the star streams are likely remnants of tidally disrupted
satellites of M63. Other satellite galaxies of M63 can be spotted in
this remarkable wide-field image, made with a small telescope,
including five newly identified faint dwarf galaxies, which could
contribute to M63's star streams in the next few billion years.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 5

Mons Rumker in the Ocean of Storms
Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-Yves Letellier

Explanation: Mons Rumker, a 70 kilometer wide complex of volcanic
domes, rises some 1100 meters above the vast, smooth lunar mare known
as Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms. Daylight came to the area
late last month. The lunar terminator, the shadow line between night
and day, runs diagonally across the left side in this telescopic
close-up of a waxing gibbous Moon from November 27. China's Chang'e-5
mission landing site is also in the frame. The probe's lander-ascender
combination touch down on the lunar surface within a region right of
center and north of Mons Rumker's domes on December 1. On December 3
the ascender left the Ocean of Storms carrying 2 kilograms of lunar
material for return to planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: close-up of a stellar nursery
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 6

M16: Pillars of Star Creation
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope, J. Hester, P. Scowen
(ASU)

Explanation: These dark pillars may look destructive, but they are
creating stars. This pillar-capturing image of the inside of the Eagle
Nebula, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows
evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular
hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in length and
are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars.
At each pillars' end, the intense radiation of bright young stars
causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of
dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star
cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away. The pillars of creation
have been imaged more recently in infrared light by Hubble, NASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope, and ESA's Herschel Space Observatory --
showing new detail.

Be Honest: Have you seen this image before?
Tomorrow's picture: mountain bubbles
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 7

Mammatus Clouds over Mount Rushmore
Image Credit & Copyright: Laure Mattuzzi

Explanation: What's that below those strange clouds? Presidents. If you
look closely, you may recognize the heads of four former US Presidents
carved into famous Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, USA. More obvious in
the featured image are the unusual mammatus clouds that passed briefly
overhead. Both were captured together by a surprised tourist with a
quick camera in early September. Unlike normal flat-bottomed clouds
which form when moist and calm air plateaus rise and cool, bumpy
mammatus clouds form as icy and turbulent air pockets sink and heat up.
Such turbulent air is frequently accompanied by a thunderstorm. Each
mammatus lobe spans about one kilometer. The greater mountain is known
to native Lakota Sioux as Six Grandfathers, deities responsible for the
directions north, south, east, west, up, and down.

Tomorrow's picture: an almost great conjunction
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 8

Great Conjunction over Sicilian Lighthouse
Image Credit & Copyright: Kevin Saragozza

Explanation: Don't miss the coming great conjunction. In just under two
weeks, the two largest planets in our Solar System will angularly pass
so close together in Earth's sky that the Moon would easily be able to
cover them both simultaneously. This pending planetary passage -- on
December 21 -- will be the closest since 1623. Jupiter and Saturn will
remain noticeably bright and can already be seen together toward the
southwest just after sunset. Soon after dusk is the best time to see
them -- because they set below the horizon soon after. In mid-November,
the Jovian giants were imaged together here about three degrees apart
-- and slowly closing. The featured image, including a crescent moon,
captured the dynamic duo beyond the Cape Murro di Porco Lighthouse in
Syracuse, Sicily, Italy.

Tomorrow's picture: martian spots
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 9

Arecibo Telescope Collapse
Video Credit: Arecibo Observatory, NSF

Explanation: This was one great scientific instrument. Starting in
1963, the 305-meters across Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico USA
reigned as the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world for
over 50 years. Among numerous firsts and milestones, data from Arecibo
has been used to measure the spin of Mercury, map the surface of Venus,
discover the first planets outside of our Solar System, verify the
existence of gravitational radiation, search for extraterrestrial
intelligence, and, reportedly, locate hidden military radar by tracking
their reflections from the Moon. Past its prime and in the process of
being decommissioned, the Arecibo Telescope suffered a catastrophic
structural collapse early this month, as seen in the featured composite
video.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 10

Simeis 147: Supernova Remnant
Image Credit & Copyright: Georges Attard

Explanation: It's easy to get lost following the intricate looping
filaments in this detailed image of supernova remnant Simeis 147. Also
cataloged as Sharpless 2-240 it goes by the popular nickname, the
Spaghetti Nebula. Seen toward the boundary of the constellations Taurus
and Auriga, it covers nearly 3 degrees or 6 full moons on the sky.
That's about 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's estimated
distance of 3,000 light-years. This composite includes image data taken
through narrow-band filters where reddish emission from ionized
hydrogen atoms and doubly ionized oxygen atoms in faint blue-green hues
trace the shocked, glowing gas. The supernova remnant has an estimated
age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from the massive stellar
explosion first reached Earth 40,000 years ago. But the expanding
remnant is not the only aftermath. The cosmic catastrophe also left
behind a spinning neutron star or pulsar, all that remains of the
original star's core.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 11

Messier Craters in Stereo
Image Credit: Apollo 11, NASA; Stereo Image Copyright Patrick Vantuyne

Explanation: Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's
sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier from his
famous 18th century catalog. His name is also given to these two large
and remarkable craters on the Moon. Standouts in the dark, smooth lunar
Sea of Fertility or Mare Fecunditatis, Messier (left) and Messier A
have dimensions of 15 by 8 and 16 by 11 kilometers respectively. Their
elongated shapes are explained by the extremely shallow-angle
trajectory followed by an impactor, moving left to right, that gouged
out the craters. The shallow impact also resulted in two bright rays of
material extending along the surface to the right, beyond the picture.
Intended to be viewed with red/blue glasses (red for the left eye),
this striking stereo picture of the crater pair was recently created
from high resolution scans of two images (AS11-42-6304, AS11-42-6305)
taken during the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.

Tomorrow's picture: wandering toward a Great Conjunction
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 12

Saturn and Jupiter in Summer 2020
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel (TWAN), Onur Durma

Explanation: During this northern summer Saturn and Jupiter were both
near opposition, opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. Their paired
retrograde motion, seen about every 20 years, is followed from 19 June
through 28 August in this panoramic composite as they wander together
between the stars in western Capricornus and eastern Sagittarius. But
this December's skies find them drawing even closer together. Jupiter
and Saturn are now close, bright celestial beacons in the west after
sunset. On solstice day December 21 they will reach their magnificent
20 year Great Conjunction. Then the two largest worlds in the Solar
System will appear in Earth's sky separated by only about 1/5 the
apparent diameter of a Full Moon.

Tomorrow's picture: Phaethon's brood
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 13

Geminid Meteors over Xinglong Observatory
Image Credit & Copyright: Steed Yu and NightChina.net

Explanation: Where do Geminid meteors come from? In terms of location
on the sky, as the featured image composite beautifully demonstrates,
the sand-sized bits of rock that create the streaks of the Geminids
meteor shower appear to flow out from the constellation of Gemini. In
terms of parent body, Solar System trajectories point to the asteroid
3200 Phaethon -- but this results in a bit of a mystery since that
unusual object appears mostly dormant. Perhaps, 3200 Phaethon undergoes
greater dust-liberating events than we know. Over 50 meteors including
a bright fireball were captured during the peak of the 2015 Geminids
Meteor Shower streaking above Xinglong Observatory in China. The
Geminids of December are one of the most predictable and active meteor
showers. This year's Geminids peak tonight and should be particularly
good because, in part, the nearly new Moon will only rise toward dawn
and so not brighten the sky.

Tomorrow's picture: human made meteor
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 14

Capsule Returns from Asteroid Ryugu
Video Credit: JAXA, Hayabusa2

Explanation: The streak across the sky is a capsule returning from an
asteroid. It returned earlier this month from the near-Earth asteroid
162173 Ryugu carrying small rocks and dust from its surface. The
canister was released by its mothership, Japan's Hayabusa2, a mission
that visited Ryugu in 2018, harvested a surface sample in 2019, and
zoomed back past Earth. The jettisoned return capsule deployed a
parachute and landed in rural Australia. A similar mission, NASA's
OSIRIS- REx, recently captured rocks and dust from a similar asteroid,
Bennu, and is scheduled to return its surface sample to Earth in 2023.
Analyses of compounds from these asteroids holds promise to give
humanity new insights about the early Solar System and new clues about
how water and organic matter came to be on Earth.

Experts Debate: How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life?
Tomorrow's picture: Jupiter meets Saturn
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 15

Great Conjunction: Saturn and Jupiter Converge
Illustration Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Voltmer

Explanation: It's happening. Saturn and Jupiter are moving closer and
will soon appear in almost exactly the same direction. Coincidentally,
on the night of the December solstice -- the longest night of the year
in the north and the longest day in the south -- the long-awaited Great
Conjunction will occur. Then, about six days from now, Saturn and
Jupiter will be right next to each other -- as they are every 20 years.
But this juxtaposition is not just any Great Conjunction -- it will be
the closest since 1623 because the two planetary giants will pass only
1/10th of a degree from each other -- well less than the apparent
diameter of a full moon. In the next few days a crescent moon will also
pass a few degrees away from the converging planets and give a
preliminary opportunity for iconic photos. The featured illustration
shows the approach of Saturn and Jupiter during November and December
over the French Alps.

Growing Gallery: Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to
APOD
Tomorrow's picture: meteor sky
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 16

Sonified: The Matter of the Bullet Cluster
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI,
Magellan/U.Arizona; Lensing Map: NASA/STScI, ESO WFI,
Magellan/U.Arizona; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds
(M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

Explanation: What's the matter with the Bullet Cluster? This massive
cluster of galaxies (1E 0657-558) creates gravitational lens
distortions of background galaxies in a way that has been interpreted
as strong evidence for the leading theory: that dark matter exists
within. Different analyses, though, indicate that a less popular
alternative -- modifying gravity-- could explain cluster dynamics
without dark matter, and provide a more likely progenitor scenario as
well. Currently, the two scientific hypotheses are competing to explain
the observations: it's invisible matter versus amended gravity. The
duel is dramatic as a clear Bullet-proof example of dark matter would
shatter the simplicity of modified gravity theories. The featured
sonified image is a Hubble/Chandra/Magellan composite with red
depicting the X-rays emitted by hot gas, and blue depicting the
suggested separated dark matter distribution. The sonification assigns
low tones to dark matter, mid-range frequencies to visible light, and
high tones to X-rays. The battle over the matter in the Bullet cluster
is likely to continue as more observations, computer simulations, and
analyses are completed.

Submitted to APOD: Notable images of the 2020 Geminids Meteor Shower
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 17

Gemini's Meteors
Image Credit & Copyright: Stefano Pellegrini

Explanation: Taken over the course of an hour shortly after local
midnight on December 13, 35 exposures were used to create this postcard
from Earth. The composited night scene spans dark skies above the snowy
Italian Dolomites during our fair planet's annual Geminid meteor
shower. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major and the brightest star in the
night, is grazed by a meteor streak on the right. The Praesepe star
cluster, also known as M44 or the Beehive cluster, itself contains
about a thousand stars but appears as a smudge of light far above the
southern alpine peaks near the top. The shower's radiant is off the top
of the frame though, near Castor and Pollux the twin stars of Gemini.
The radiant effect is due to perspective as the parallel meteor tracks
appear to converge in the distance. As Earth sweeps through the dust
trail of asteroid 3200 Phaethon, the dust that creates Gemini's meteors
enters Earth's atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.

Tomorrow's picture: December's diamond ring
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 18

Diamond in the Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Mariano Ribas (Planetario de la Ciudad de
Buenos Aires)

Explanation: When the shadow of the Moon raced across planet Earth's
southern hemisphere on December 14, sky watchers along the shadow's
dark central path were treated to the only total solar eclipse of 2020.
During the New Moon's shadow play this glistening diamond ring was seen
for a moment, even in cloudy skies. Known as the diamond ring effect,
the transient spectacle actually happens twice. Just before and
immediately after totality, a thin sliver of solar disk visible behind
the Moon's edge creates the appearance of a shiny jewel set in a dark
ring. This dramatic snapshot from the path of totality in northern
Patagonia, Argentina captures this eclipse's second diamond ring, along
with striking solar prominences lofted beyond the edge of the Moon's
silhoutte.

Tomorrow's picture: returner
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 19

Conjunction after Sunset
Image Credit & Copyright: Alireza Vafa

Explanation: How close will Jupiter and Saturn be at their Great
Conjunction? Consider this beautiful triple conjunction of Moon,
Jupiter and Saturn captured through clouds in the wintry twilight. The
telephoto view looks toward the western horizon and the Alborz
Mountains in Iran after sunset on December 17. The celestial gathering
makes it easy to see Jupiter and fainter Saturn are separated on that
date by roughly the diameter of the waxing crescent Moon. On the day of
their Great Conjunction, solstice day December 21, Jupiter and Saturn
may seem to nearly merge though. In their closest conjunction in 400
years they will be separated on the sky by only about 1/5 the apparent
diameter of the Moon. By then the two largest worlds in the Solar
System and their moons will be sharing the same field of view in
telescopes around planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: pillars and jets
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 20

A Volcanic Great Conjunction
Image Credit & Copyright: Francisco Sojuel

Explanation: Where can I see the Great Conjunction? Near where the Sun
just set. Directionally, this close passing of Jupiter and Saturn will
be toward the southwest. Since the planetary pair, the Sun, and the
Earth are nearly in a geometric straight line, the planets will be seen
to set just where the Sun had set -- from every location on Earth. When
can I see the Great Conjunction? Just after sunset. Since the two
planets are so near the Sun directionally, they always appear in the
sky near the Sun, but can best be seen when the Earth blocks the Sun
but not the planets: sunset. Soon thereafter, Jupiter and Saturn will
also set, so don't be late! Is tomorrow night the only night that I can
see the Great Conjunction? Tomorrow night the jovian giants will appear
the closest, but on any night over the next few days they will appear
unusually close. Technically, the closest pass happens on 21 December
at 18:20 UTC. Will there be an erupting volcano on the horizon near the
Great Conjunction? Yes, for example if you live in Guatemala where the
featured image was taken. Otherwise, generally, no. In the featured
image captured last week, Jupiter and Saturn are visible toward the
right, just above a tree, and bathed in the diffuse glow of zodiacal
light.

Growing Gallery: Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to
APOD
Tomorrow's picture: one day short
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 21

Solstice: Sunrises Around the Year
Image Credit & Copyright: Zaid M. Al-Abbadi

Explanation: Does the Sun always rise in the same direction? No. As the
months change, the direction toward the rising Sun changes, too. The
featured image shows the direction of sunrise every month during 2019
as seen from near the city of Amman, Jordan. The camera in the image is
always facing due east, with north toward the left and south toward the
right. Although the Sun always rises in the east in general, it rises
furthest to the south of east on the December solstice, and furthest
north of east on the June solstice. Today is the December solstice, the
day of least sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere and of most sunlight
in the Southern Hemisphere. In many countries, the December Solstice is
considered an official change in season: for example the first day of
winter in the North. Solar heating and stored energy in the Earth's
surface and atmosphere are near their lowest during winter, making the
winter months usually the coldest of the year. On the brighter side, in
the north, daylight hours will now increase every day from until June.

Sunset: The Great Conjunction of Jupiter & Saturn
Tomorrow's picture: three jets
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 22

Trifid Pillars and Jets
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope, HLA; Processing:
Advait Mehla

Explanation: Dust pillars are like interstellar mountains. They survive
because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are being
slowly eroded away by a hostile environment. Visible in the featured
picture is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the Trifid Nebula
(M20), punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual jet
pointing to the left. Many of the dots are newly formed low-mass stars.
A star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its
accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated
off the top of the image. The jet extends nearly a light-year and would
not be visible without external illumination. As gas and dust evaporate
from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this jet will likely be
uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.

Growing Gallery: Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to
APOD
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 23

Jupiter Meets Saturn: A Red Spotted Great Conjunction
Image Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach

Explanation: It was time for their close-up. Two days ago Jupiter and
Saturn passed a tenth of a degree from each other in what is known a
Great Conjunction. Although the two planets pass each other on the sky
every 20 years, this was the closest pass in nearly four centuries.
Taken early in day of the Great Conjunction, the featured
multiple-exposure combination captures not only both giant planets in a
single frame, but also Jupiter's four largest moons (left to right)
Callisto, Ganymede, Io, and Europa -- and Saturn's largest moon Titan.
If you look very closely, the clear Chilescope image even captures
Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The now-separating planets can still be seen
remarkably close -- within about a degree -- as they set just after the
Sun, toward the west, each night for the remainder of the year.

Gallery: Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to APOD
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 24

Portrait of NGC 1055
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is a dominant member
of a small galaxy group a mere 60 million light-years away toward the
aquatically intimidating constellation Cetus. Seen edge-on, the island
universe spans over 100,000 light-years, a little larger than our own
Milky Way galaxy. The colorful, spiky stars decorating this cosmic
portrait of NGC 1055 are in the foreground, well within the Milky Way.
But the telltale pinkish star forming regions are scattered through
winding dust lanes along the distant galaxy's thin disk. With a
smattering of even more distant background galaxies, the deep image
also reveals a boxy halo that extends far above and below the central
bluge and disk of NGC 1055. The halo itself is laced with faint, narrow
structures, and could represent the mixed and spread out debris from a
satellite galaxy disrupted by the larger spiral some 10 billion years
ago.

Tomorrow's picture: Postcard from the North
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 25

Northern Winter Night
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block

Explanation: Orion always seems to come up sideways on northern winter
evenings. Those familiar stars of the constellation of the Hunter are
caught above the trees in this colorful night skyscape. Not a star at
all but still visible to eye, the Great Nebula of Orion shines below
the Hunter's belt stars. The camera's exposure reveals the stellar
nursery's faint pinkish glow. Betelgeuse, giant star at Orion's
shoulder, has the color of warm and cozy terrestrial lighting, but so
does another familiar stellar giant, Aldebaran. Alpha star of the
constellation Taurus the Bull, Aldebaran anchors the recognizable
V-shape traced by the Hyades Cluster toward the top of the starry
frame.

Tomorrow's picture: Fox Fur, Unicorn, Christmas Tree
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 26

Fox Fur, Unicorn, and Christmas Tree
Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva)

Explanation: Clouds of glowing hydrogen gas fill this colorful skyscape
in the faint but fanciful constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn. A star
forming region cataloged as NGC 2264, the complex jumble of cosmic gas
and dust is about 2,700 light-years distant and mixes reddish emission
nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars with dark
interstellar dust clouds. Where the otherwise obscuring dust clouds lie
close to the hot, young stars they also reflect starlight, forming blue
reflection nebulae. The telescopic image spans about 1.5 degrees or 3
full moons, covering nearly 80 light-years at the distance of NGC 2264.
Its cast of cosmic characters includes the the Fox Fur Nebula, whose
dusty, convoluted pelt lies left of center, bright variable star S
Monocerotis immersed in the blue-tinted haze near center, and the Cone
Nebula pointing in from the right side of the frame. Of course, the
stars of NGC 2264 are also known as the Christmas Tree star cluster.
The triangular tree shape is seen on its side here. Traced by brighter
stars it has its apex at the Cone Nebula. The tree's broader base is
centered near S Monocerotis.

Tomorrow's picture: pixel in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 27

Cosmic Latte: The Average Color of the Universe
Color Credit: Karl Glazebrook & Ivan Baldry (JHU)

Explanation: What color is the universe? More precisely, if the entire
sky were smeared out, what color would the final mix be? This whimsical
question came up when trying to determine what stars are commonplace in
nearby galaxies. The answer, depicted above, is a conditionally
perceived shade of beige. In computer parlance: #FFF8E7. To determine
this, astronomers computationally averaged the light emitted by one of
the larger samples of galaxies analyzed: the 200,000 galaxies of the
2dF survey. The resulting cosmic spectrum has some emission in all
parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but a single perceived composite
color. This color has become much less blue over the past 10 billion
years, indicating that redder stars are becoming more prevalent. In a
contest to better name the color, notable entries included skyvory,
univeige, and the winner: cosmic latte.

Gallery: Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to APOD
Tomorrow's picture: eagle space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 28

M16: Inside the Eagle Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Paladini

Explanation: From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle. A closer
look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright region is actually
a window into the center of a larger dark shell of dust. Through this
window, a brightly-lit workshop appears where a whole open cluster of
stars is being formed. In this cavity tall pillars and round globules
of dark dust and cold molecular gas remain where stars are still
forming. Already visible are several young bright blue stars whose
light and winds are burning away and pushing back the remaining
filaments and walls of gas and dust. The Eagle emission nebula, tagged
M16, lies about 6500 light years away, spans about 20 light-years, and
is visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Serpent
(Serpens). This picture involved over 12 hours of imaging and combines
three specific emitted colors emitted by sulfur (colored as red),
hydrogen (yellow), and oxygen (blue).

Gallery: Notable images of the recent Total Solar Eclipse submitted to
APOD
Tomorrow's picture: a spot of darkness
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 29

Earth During a Total Solar Eclipse
Video Credit: GOES-16, ABI, NOAA, NASA

Explanation: What does the Earth look like during a total solar
eclipse? It appears dark in the region where people see the eclipse,
because that's where the shadow of the Moon falls. The shadow spot
rapidly shoots across the Earth at nearly 2,000 kilometers per hour,
darkening locations in its path -- typically for only a few minutes --
before moving on. The featured video shows the Earth during the total
solar eclipse earlier this month. The time-lapse sequence, taken from a
geostationary satellite, starts with the Earth below showing night but
the sun soon rises at the lower right. Clouds shift as day breaks over
the blue planet. Suddenly the circular shadow of the Moon appears on
the left and moves rapidly across South America, disappearing on the
lower right. The video ends as nightfall begins again. The next total
solar eclipse will occur next December -- but be visible only from
parts of Antarctica.

Gallery: Notable images of the recent Total Solar Eclipse submitted to
APOD
Tomorrow's picture: planets dance
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 30

Jupiter and Saturn Great Conjunction: The Movie
Video Credit: Thanakrit Santikunaporn (National Astronomical Research
Institute of Thailand); Text: Matipon Tangmatitham

Explanation: Yes, but have you seen a movie of Jupiter and Saturn's
Great Conjunction? The featured time-lapse video was composed from a
series of images taken from Thailand and shows the two giant planets as
they angularly passed about a tenth of a degree from each other. The
first Great Conjunction sequence shows a relative close up over five
days with moons and cloud bands easily visible, followed by a second
video sequence, zoomed out, over 9 days. Even though Jupiter and Saturn
appeared to pass unusually close together on the sky on December 21,
2020, in actuality they were still nearly a billion kilometers apart.
The two gas giants are destined for similar meet ups every 19.86 years.
However, they had not come this close, angularly, for the past 397
years, and will not again for another 60 years. If you're willing to
wait until the year 7541, though, you can see Jupiter pass directly in
front of Saturn.

Gallery: Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to APOD
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 30

Jupiter and Saturn Great Conjunction: The Movie
Video Credit: Thanakrit Santikunaporn (National Astronomical Research
Institute of Thailand); Text: Matipon Tangmatitham

Explanation: Yes, but have you seen a movie of Jupiter and Saturn's
Great Conjunction? The featured time-lapse video was composed from a
series of images taken from Thailand and shows the two giant planets as
they angularly passed about a tenth of a degree from each other. The
first Great Conjunction sequence shows a relative close up over five
days with moons and cloud bands easily visible, followed by a second
video sequence, zoomed out, over 9 days. Even though Jupiter and Saturn
appeared to pass unusually close together on the sky on December 21,
2020, in actuality they were still nearly a billion kilometers apart.
The two gas giants are destined for similar meet ups every 19.86 years.
However, they had not come this close, angularly, for the past 397
years, and will not again for another 60 years. If you're willing to
wait until the year 7541, though, you can see Jupiter pass directly in
front of Saturn.

Gallery: Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to APOD
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2020 December 31

Trail of the Returner
Image Credit & Copyright: Zhuoxiao Wang

Explanation: Familiar stars of a northern winter's night shine in this
night skyview, taken near Zhangye, Gansu, China and the border with
Inner Mongolia. During the early hours of December 17 Orion is near
center in the single exposure that captures a fireball streaking across
the sky, almost as bright as yellowish Mars shining on the right.
Splitting Gemini's twin bright stars Castor and Pollux near the top of
the frame, the fireball's trail and timing are consistent with the
second skipping atmospheric entry of the Chang'e 5 mission's returner
capsule. The returner capsule was successfully recovered after landing
in Inner Mongolia, planet Earth with about 2 kilograms of lunar
material on board. The lunar sample is thought to contain relatively
young material collected near the Mons Rumker region of the Moon's
Oceanus Procellarum. Launched on November 23 UT, China's Chang'e 5
mission is the first lunar sample return mission since the Soviet
Union's Luna 24 mission in 1976.

Tomorrow's picture: southern skies
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 1

Galaxies and the South Celestial Pole
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek, Josef Kujal

Explanation: The South Celestial Pole is easy to spot in star trail
images of the southern sky. The extension of Earth's axis of rotation
to the south, it's at the center of all the southern star trail arcs.
In this starry panorama streching about 60 degrees across deep southern
skies the South Celestial Pole is somewhere near the middle though,
flanked by bright galaxies and southern celestial gems. Across the top
of the frame are the stars and nebulae along the plane of our own Milky
Way Galaxy. Gamma Crucis, a yellowish giant star heads the Southern
Cross near top center, with the dark expanse of the Coalsack nebula
tucked under the cross arm on the left. Eta Carinae and the reddish
glow of the Great Carina Nebula shine along the galactic plane near the
right edge. At the bottom are the Large and Small Magellanic clouds,
external galaxies in their own right and satellites of the mighty Milky
Way. A line from Gamma Crucis through the blue star at the bottom of
the southern cross, Alpha Crucis, points toward the South Celestial
Pole, but where exactly is it? Just look for south pole star Sigma
Octantis. Analog to Polaris the north pole star, Sigma Octantis is
little over one degree fom the the South Celestial pole.

Tomorrow's picture: apollo's muse
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 2

21st Century Wet Collodion Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Smolinsky

Explanation: In the mid 19th century, one of the first photographic
technologies used to record the lunar surface was the wet-plate
collodion process, notably employed by British astronomer Warren De la
Rue. To capture an image, a thick, transparent mixture was used to coat
a glass plate, sensitized with silver nitrate, exposed at the
telescope, and then developed to create a negative image on the plate.
To maintain photographic sensitivity, the entire process, from coating
to exposure to developing, had to be completed before the plate dried,
in a span of about 10 to 15 minutes. This modern version of a wet-plate
collodion image celebrates lunar photography's early days, reproducing
the process using modern chemicals to coat a glass plate from a 21st
century hardware store. Captured last November 28 with an 8x10 view
camera and backyard telescope, it faithfully records large craters,
bright rays, and dark, smooth mare of the waxing gibbous Moon.
Subsequently digitized, the image on the plate was 8.5 centimeters in
diameter and exposed while tracking for 2 minutes. The wet plate's
effective photographic sensitivity was about ISO 1. In your smart
phone, the camera sensor probably has a photographic sensitivity range
of ISO 100 to 6400 (and needs to be kept dry ...).

Tomorrow's picture: northern lights
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 3

A Phoenix Aurora over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Hallgrimur P. Helgason; Rollover Annotation:
Judy Schmidt

Explanation: All of the other aurora watchers had gone home. By 3:30 am
in Iceland, on a quiet September night, much of that night's auroras
had died down. Suddenly, unexpectedly, a new burst of particles
streamed down from space, lighting up the Earth's atmosphere once
again. This time, surprisingly, pareidoliacally, the night lit up with
an amazing shape reminiscent of a giant phoenix. With camera equipment
at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately by
a third of the land. The mountain in the background is Helgafell, while
the small foreground river is called Kaldß, both located about 30
kilometers north of Iceland's capital Reykjavøk. Seasoned skywatchers
will note that just above the mountain, toward the left, is the
constellation of Orion, while the Pleiades star cluster is also visible
just above the frame center. The 2016 aurora, which lasted only a
minute and was soon gone forever -- would possibly be dismissed as an
fanciful fable -- were it not captured in the featured,
digitally-composed, image mosaic.

Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: lightening up
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 4

Sprite Lightning at 100,000 Frames Per Second
Video Credit & Copyright: Matthew G McHarg, Jacob L Harley, Thomas
Ashcraft, Hans Nielsen

Explanation: What causes sprite lightning? Mysterious bursts of light
in the sky that momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish have been
recorded for over 30 years, but apart from a general association with
positive cloud-to-ground lightning, their root cause remains unknown.
Some thunderstorms have them -- most don't. Recently, however, high
speed videos are better detailing how sprites actually develop. The
featured video, captured in mid-2019, is fast enough -- at about
100,000 frames per second -- to time-resolve several sprite "bombs"
dropping and developing into the multi-pronged streamers that appear on
still images. Unfortunately, the visual clues provided by videos like
these do not fully resolve the sprite origins mystery. High speed
vidoes do indicate to some researchers, though, that sprites are more
likely to occur when plasma irregularities exist in the upper
atmosphere.

Astrophysicists: Browse 2,300+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
Tomorrow's picture: it's a galaxy
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 5

The Small Cloud of Magellan
Image Credit & Copyright: JosΘ Mtanous

Explanation: What is the Small Magellanic Cloud? It has turned out to
be a galaxy. People who have wondered about this little fuzzy patch in
the southern sky included Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and
his crew, who had plenty of time to study the unfamiliar night sky of
the south during the first circumnavigation of planet Earth in the
early 1500s. As a result, two celestial wonders easily visible for
southern hemisphere skygazers are now known in Western culture as the
Clouds of Magellan. Within the past 100 years, research has shown that
these cosmic clouds are dwarf irregular galaxies, satellites of our
larger spiral Milky Way Galaxy. The Small Magellanic Cloud actually
spans 15,000 light-years or so and contains several hundred million
stars. About 210,000 light-years away in the constellation of the Tucan
(Tucana), it is more distant than other known Milky Way satellite
galaxies, including the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy and the Large
Magellanic Cloud. This sharp image also includes the foreground
globular star cluster 47 Tucanae on the right.

Tomorrow's picture: streaking dunes
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 6

Striped Sand Dunes on Mars
Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA; Processing: Wl/odek
Gl/azewski;
Text: Alex R. Howe (NASA/USRA, Reader's History of SciFi Podcast)

Explanation: Why are these sand dunes on Mars striped? No one is sure.
The featured image shows striped dunes in Kunowsky Crater on Mars,
photographed recently with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE
Camera. Many Martian dunes are known to be covered unevenly with carbon
dioxide (dry ice) frost, creating patterns of light and dark areas.
Carbon dioxide doesn't melt, but sublimates, turning directly into a
gas. Carbon dioxide is also a greenhouse material even as a solid, so
it can trap heat under the ice and sublimate from the bottom up,
causing geyser-like eruptions. During Martian spring, these eruptions
can cause a pattern of dark defrosting spots, where the darker sand is
exposed. The featured image, though, was taken during Martian autumn,
when the weather is getting colder - making these stripes particularly
puzzling. One hypothesis is that they are caused by cracks in the ice
that form from weaker eruptions or thermal stress as part of the
day-night cycle, but research continues. Watching these dunes and
others through more Martian seasons may give us more clues to solve
this mystery.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 7

Total Solar Eclipse 2020
Image Credit & Copyright: Miloslav Druckmuller, Andreas Moller, (Brno
University of Technology),

Explanation: Along a narrow path crossing southern South America
through Chile and Argentina, the final New Moon of 2020 moved in front
of the Sun on December 14 in the year's only total solar eclipse.
Within about 2 days of perigee, the closest point in its elliptical
orbit, the New Moon's surface is faintly lit by earthshine in this
dramatic composite view. The image is a processed composite of 55
calibrated exposures ranging from 1/640 to 3 seconds. Covering a large
range in brightness during totality, it reveals the dim lunar surface
and faint background stars, along with planet-sized prominences at the
Sun's edge, an enormous coronal mass ejection, and sweeping coronal
structures normally hidden in the Sun's glare. Look closely for an
ill-fated sungrazing Kreutz family comet (C/2020 X3 SOHO) approaching
from the lower left, at about the 7 o'clock position. In 2021 eclipse
chasers will see an annular solar eclipse coming up on June 10. They'll
have to wait until December 4 for the only total solar eclipse in 2021
though. That eclipse will be total along a narrow path crossing the
southernmost continent of Antarctica.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 8

NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby, Leonardo Orazi

Explanation: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island
universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million
light-years away toward the chemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is
a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax Cluster of galaxies. This
impressively sharp color image shows the intense, reddish star forming
regions near the ends of central bar and along the spiral arms, with
details of the obscuring dust lanes cutting across the galaxy's bright
core. At the core lies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC
1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution,
drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately
feeding material into the central black hole.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 9

Titan: Moon over Saturn
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute

Explanation: Like Earth's moon, Saturn's largest moon Titan is locked
in synchronous rotation. This mosaic of images recorded by the Cassini
spacecraft in May of 2012 shows its anti-Saturn side, the side always
facing away from the ringed gas giant. The only moon in the solar
system with a dense atmosphere, Titan is the only solar system world
besides Earth known to have standing bodies of liquid on its surface
and an earthlike cycle of liquid rain and evaporation. Its high
altitude layer of atmospheric haze is evident in the Cassini view of
the 5,000 kilometer diameter moon over Saturn's rings and cloud tops.
Near center is the dark dune-filled region known as Shangri-La. The
Cassini-delivered Huygens probe rests below and left of center, after
the most distant landing for a spacecraft from Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: star cluster breakout
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 10

Star Cluster R136 Breaks Out
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, & F. Paresce (INAF-IASF), R. O'Connell (U.
Virginia) et al.

Explanation: In the center of nearby star-forming region lies a huge
cluster containing some of the largest, hottest, and most massive stars
known. These stars, known collectively as star cluster R136, part of
the Tarantula Nebula, were captured in the featured image in visible
light in 2009 through the Hubble Space Telescope. Gas and dust clouds
in the Tarantula Nebula, have been sculpted into elongated shapes by
powerful winds and ultraviolet radiation from these hot cluster stars.
The Tarantula Nebula lies within a neighboring galaxy known as the
Large Magellanic Cloud and is located a mere 170,000 light-years away.

Tomorrow's picture: phase the moon
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 11

Moon Phases in 2021
Video Credit: Data: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ; Animation: NASA's
Scientific Visualization Studio;
Music: Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 (Johann Sebastian Bach), by
Kevin MacLeod via Incompetech

Explanation: What will the Moon phase be on your birthday this year? It
is hard to predict because the Moon's appearance changes nightly. As
the Moon orbits the Earth, the half illuminated by the Sun first
becomes increasingly visible, then decreasingly visible. The featured
video animates images taken by NASA's Moon-orbiting Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter to show all 12 lunations that appear this year,
2021. A single lunation describes one full cycle of our Moon, including
all of its phases. A full lunation takes about 29.5 days, just under a
month (moon-th). As each lunation progresses, sunlight reflects from
the Moon at different angles, and so illuminates different features
differently. During all of this, of course, the Moon always keeps the
same face toward the Earth. What is less apparent night-to-night is
that the Moon's apparent size changes slightly, and that a slight
wobble called a libration occurs as the Moon progresses along its
elliptical orbit.

APOD online webinar January 12: Free registration, hosted by Amateur
Astronomers Association of New York.
Tomorrow's picture: folklore sky
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 12

A Historic Brazilian Constellation
Image Credit & Copyright: Rodrigo Guerra

Explanation: The night sky is filled with stories. Cultures throughout
history have projected some of their most enduring legends onto the
stars above. Generations of people see these stellar constellations,
hear the associated stories, and pass them down. Featured here is the
perhaps unfamiliar constellation of the Old Man, long recognized by the
Tupi peoples native to regions of South America now known as Brazil.
The Old Man, in more modern vernacular, may be composed of the Hyades
star cluster as his head and the belt of Orion as part of one leg. Tupi
folklore relates that the other leg was cut off by his unhappy wife,
causing it to end at the orange star now known as Betelgeuse. The
Pleiades star cluster, on the far left, can be interpreted as a head
feather. In the featured image, the hobbled Old Man is mirrored by a
person posing in the foreground. Folklore of the night sky is important
for many reasons, including that it records cultural heritage and
documents the universality of human intelligence and imagination.

APOD in world languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing), Chinese
(Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French,
German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Montenegrin, Polish,
Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Taiwanese, Turkish, Turkish, and
Ukrainian

APOD online webinar January 12: Free registration, hosted by Amateur
Astronomers Association of New York.
Tomorrow's picture: arctic sky arches
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 12

A Historic Brazilian Constellation
Image Credit & Copyright: Rodrigo Guerra

Explanation: The night sky is filled with stories. Cultures throughout
history have projected some of their most enduring legends onto the
stars above. Generations of people see these stellar constellations,
hear the associated stories, and pass them down. Featured here is the
perhaps unfamiliar constellation of the Old Man, long recognized by the
Tupi peoples native to regions of South America now known as Brazil.
The Old Man, in more modern vernacular, may be composed of the Hyades
star cluster as his head and the belt of Orion as part of one leg. Tupi
folklore relates that the other leg was cut off by his unhappy wife,
causing it to end at the orange star now known as Betelgeuse. The
Pleiades star cluster, on the far left, can be interpreted as a head
feather. In the featured image, the hobbled Old Man is mirrored by a
person posing in the foreground. Folklore of the night sky is important
for many reasons, including that it records cultural heritage and
documents the universality of human intelligence and imagination.

APOD in world languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing), Chinese
(Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French,
German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Montenegrin, Polish,
Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Taiwanese, Turkish, Turkish, and
Ukrainian

APOD online webinar January 12: Free registration, hosted by Amateur
Astronomers Association of New York.
Tomorrow's picture: arctic sky arches
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 13

Arches Across an Arctic Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Giulio Cobianchi

Explanation: What are these two giant arches across the sky? Perhaps
the more familiar one, on the left, is the central band of our Milky
Way Galaxy. This grand disk of stars and nebulas here appears to
encircle much of the southern sky. Visible below the stellar arch is
the rusty-orange planet Mars and the extended Andromeda galaxy. For a
few minutes during this cold artic night, a second giant arch appeared
to the right, encircling part of the northern sky: an aurora. Auroras
are much closer than stars as they are composed of glowing air high in
Earth's atmosphere. Visible outside the green auroral arch is the group
of stars popularly known as the Big Dipper. The featured digital
composite of 18 images was captured in mid-December over the in Norway.

APOD Year in Review (2020): RJN's Night Sky Network Lecture
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 14

Aurora Slathers Up the Sky
Image Credit: Jack Fischer, Expedition 52, NASA

Explanation: Like salsa verde on your favorite burrito, a green aurora
slathers up the sky in this 2017 June 25 snapshot from the
International Space Station. About 400 kilometers (250 miles) above
Earth, the orbiting station is itself within the upper realm of the
auroral displays. Aurorae have the signature colors of excited
molecules and atoms at the low densities found at extreme altitudes.
Emission from atomic oxygen dominates this view. The tantalizing glow
is green at lower altitudes, but rarer reddish bands extend above the
space station's horizon. The orbital scene was captured while passing
over a point south and east of Australia, with stars above the horizon
at the right belonging to the constellation Canis Major, Orion's big
dog. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major, is the brightest star near the
Earth's limb.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 15

A Plutonian Landscape
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research
Institute

Explanation: This shadowy landscape of majestic mountains and icy
plains stretches toward the horizon on a small, distant world. It was
captured from a range of about 18,000 kilometers when New Horizons
looked back toward Pluto, 15 minutes after the spacecraft's closest
approach on July 14. The dramatic, low-angle, near-twilight scene
follows rugged mountains formally known as Norgay Montes from
foreground left, and Hillary Montes along the horizon, giving way to
smooth Sputnik Planum at right. Layers of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere
are also revealed in the backlit view. With a strangely familiar
appearance, the frigid terrain likely includes ices of nitrogen and
carbon monoxide with water-ice mountains rising up to 3,500 meters
(11,000 feet). That's comparable in height to the majestic mountains of
planet Earth. The Plutonian landscape is 380 kilometers (230 miles)
across.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 16

The Mountains of NGC 2174
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Explanation: This fantastic skyscape lies near the edge of NGC 2174 a
star forming region about 6,400 light-years away in the nebula-rich
constellation of Orion. It follows mountainous clouds of gas and dust
carved by winds and radiation from the region's newborn stars, now
found scattered in open star clusters embedded around the center of NGC
2174, off the top of the frame. Though star formation continues within
these dusty cosmic clouds they will likely be dispersed by the
energetic newborn stars within a few million years. Recorded at
infrared wavelengths by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014, the
interstellar scene spans about 6 light-years. Scheduled for launch in
2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is optimized for exploring the
Universe at infrared wavelengths.

Tomorrow's picture: active galaxy
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 17

Jets from Unusual Galaxy Centaurus A
Image Credit: ESO/WFI (visible); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A. Weiss et al.
(microwave); NASA/CXC/CfA/R. Kraft et al. (X-ray)

Explanation: The jets emanating from Centaurus A are over a million
light years long. These jets of streaming plasma, expelled by a giant
black hole in the center of this spiral galaxy, light up this composite
image of Cen A. Exactly how the central black hole expels infalling
matter remains unknown. After clearing the galaxy, however, the jets
inflate large radio bubbles that likely glow for millions of years. If
energized by a passing gas cloud, the radio bubbles can even light up
again after billions of years. X-ray light is depicted in the featured
composite image in blue, while microwave light is colored orange. The
base of the jet in radio light shows details of the innermost light
year of the central jet.

Tomorrow's picture: brain star
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 18

The Medulla Nebula Supernova Remnant
Image Credit & Copyright: Russell Croman

Explanation: What powers this unusual nebula? CTB-1 is the expanding
gas shell that was left when a massive star toward the constellation of
Cassiopeia exploded about 10,000 years ago. The star likely detonated
when it ran out of elements, near its core, that could create
stabilizing pressure with nuclear fusion. The resulting supernova
remnant, nicknamed the Medulla Nebula for its brain-like shape, still
glows in visible light by the heat generated by its collision with
confining interstellar gas. Why the nebula also glows in X-ray light,
though, remains a mystery. One hypothesis holds that an energetic
pulsar was co-created that powers the nebula with a fast outwardly
moving wind. Following this lead, a pulsar has recently been found in
radio waves that appears to have been expelled by the supernova
explosion at over 1000 kilometers per second. Although the Medulla
Nebula appears as large as a full moon, it is so faint that it took
130-hours of exposure with two small telescopes in New Mexico, USA, to
create the featured image.

Tomorrow's picture: moon and planets
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 19

A Lunar Corona with Jupiter and Saturn
Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandra Masi

Explanation: Why does a cloudy moon sometimes appear colorful? The
effect, called a lunar corona, is created by the quantum mechanical
diffraction of light around individual, similarly-sized water droplets
in an intervening but mostly-transparent cloud. Since light of
different colors has different wavelengths, each color diffracts
differently. Lunar Coronae are one of the few quantum mechanical color
effects that can be easily seen with the unaided eye. Solar coronae are
also sometimes evident. The featured composite image was captured a few
days before the close Great Conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter last
month. In the foreground, the Italian village of Pieve di Cadore is
visible in front of the Sfornioi Mountains.

New: APOD is now available in Taiwanese from National Central
University
Tomorrow's picture: magnetic spiral
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 20

The Magnetic Field of the Whirlpool Galaxy
Image Credit: NASA, SOFIA, HAWC+, Alejandro S. Borlaff; JPL-Caltech,
ESA, Hubble; Text: Jayanne English (U. Manitoba)

Explanation: Do magnetic fields always flow along spiral arms? Our
face-on view of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) allows a spectacularly clear
view of the spiral wave pattern in a disk-shaped galaxy. When observed
with a radio telescope, the magnetic field appears to trace the arms'
curvature. However, with NASA's flying Stratospheric Observatory for
Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) observatory, the magnetic field at the outer
edge of M51's disk appears to weave across the arms instead. Magnetic
fields are inferred by grains of dust aligning in one direction and
acting like polaroid glasses on infrared light. In the featured image,
the field orientations determined from this polarized light are
algorithmically connected, creating streamlines. Possibly the
gravitational tug of the companion galaxy, at the top of the frame, on
the dusty gas of the reddish star-forming regions, visible in the
Hubble Space Telescope image, enhances turbulence -- stirring the dust
and lines to produce the unexpected field pattern of the outer arms.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 21

M78 Wide Field
Image Credit & Copyright: Wes Higgins

Explanation: Interstellar dust clouds and glowing nebulae abound in the
fertile constellation of Orion. One of the brightest, M78, is centered
in this colorful, wide field view, covering an area north of Orion's
belt. At a distance of about 1,500 light-years, the bluish reflection
nebula is around 5 light-years across. Its tint is due to dust
preferentially reflecting the blue light of hot, young stars.
Reflection nebula NGC 2071 is just to the left of M78. Flecks of
emission from Herbig-Haro objects, energetic jets from stars in the
process of formation, stand out against the dark dust lanes. The
exposure also brings out the region's fainter, pervasive reddish glow
of atomic hydrogen gas.

Tomorrow's picture: in the round
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 22

The Milky Ring
Image Credit & Copyright: Alvin Wu

Explanation: An expanse of cosmic dust, stars and nebulae along the
plane of our Milky Way galaxy form a beautiful ring in this projected
all-sky view. The creative panorama covers the entire galaxy visible
from planet Earth, an ambitious 360 degree mosaic that took two years
to complete. Northern hemisphere sites in western China and southern
hemisphere sites in New Zealand were used to collect the image data.
Like a glowing jewel set in the milky ring, the bulge of the galactic
center, is at the very top. Bright planet Jupiter is the beacon just
above the central bulge and left of red giant star Antares. Along the
plane and almost 180 degrees from the galactic center, at the bottom of
the ring is the area around Orion, denizen of the northern hemisphere's
evening winter skies. In this projection the ring of the Milky Way
encompasses two notable galaxies in southern skies, the large and small
Magellanic clouds.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 23

Recycling Cassiopeia A
Image Credit: X-ray - NASA, CXC, SAO; Optical - NASA,STScI

Explanation: Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular
lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces
ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After a few million
years, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space
where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known
as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life
cycle. Light from the explosion which created this supernova remnant
would have been first seen in planet Earth's sky about 350 years ago,
although it took that light about 11,000 years to reach us. This
false-color image, composed of X-ray and optical image data from the
Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, shows the still
hot filaments and knots in the remnant. It spans about 30 light-years
at the estimated distance of Cassiopeia A. High-energy X-ray emission
from specific elements has been color coded, silicon in red, sulfur in
yellow, calcium in green and iron in purple, to help astronomers
explore the recycling of our galaxy's star stuff. Still expanding, the
outer blast wave is seen in blue hues. The bright speck near the center
is a neutron star, the incredibly dense, collapsed remains of the
massive stellar core.

Tomorrow's picture: massive galaxy
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 24

Massive Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, Subaru; Composition & Copyright:
Roberto Colombari

Explanation: It is one of the more massive galaxies known. A mere 46
million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in the
northern constellation of Ursa Major. This sharp view of the gorgeous
island universe shows off a striking yellow nucleus and galactic disk.
Dust lanes, small, pink star-forming regions, and young blue star
clusters are embedded in the patchy, tightly wound spiral arms. In
contrast, many other spirals exhibit grand, sweeping arms with large
star-forming regions. NGC 2841 has a diameter of over 150,000
light-years, even larger than our own Milky Way. The featured composite
image merges exposures from the orbiting 2.4-meter Hubble Space
Telescope and the ground-based 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope. X-ray images
suggest that resulting winds and stellar explosions create plumes of
hot gas extending into a halo around NGC 2841.

Tomorrow's picture: volcanic cross
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 25

Southern Cross over Chilean Volcano
Image Credit & Copyright: Tomßs Slovinsk²

Explanation: Have you ever seen the Southern Cross? This famous
four-star icon is best seen from Earth's Southern Hemisphere. The
featured image was taken last month in Chile and captures the Southern
Cross just to the left of erupting Villarrica, one of the most active
volcanos in our Solar System. Connecting the reddest Southern Cross
star Gacrux through the brightest star Acrux points near the most
southern location in the sky: the South Celestial Pole (SCP), around
which all southern stars appear to spin as the Earth turns. In modern
times, no bright star resides near the SCP, unlike in the north where
bright Polaris now appears near the NCP. Extending the Gacrux - Acrux
line still further (from about four to about seven times their angular
separation) leads near the Small Magellanic Cloud, a bright satellite
galaxy of our Milky Way Galaxy. The Southern Cross asterism dominates
the Crux constellation, a deeper array of stars that includes four
Cepheid variable stars visible to the unaided eye. Just above the
volcano in the image, and looking like a dark plume, is the Coalsack
Nebula, while the large red star-forming Carina Nebula is visible on
the upper left.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: detective hubble
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 26

Central NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Daniel Nobre

Explanation: How did this strange-looking galaxy form? Astronomers turn
detectives when trying to figure out the cause of unusual jumbles of
stars, gas, and dust like NGC 1316. Inspection indicates that NGC 1316
is an enormous elliptical galaxy that somehow includes dark dust lanes
usually found in a spiral galaxy. Detailed images taken by the Hubble
Space Telescope shows details, however, that help in reconstructing the
history of this gigantic tangle. Deep and wide images show huge
collisional shells, while deep central images reveal fewer globular
clusters of stars toward NGC 1316's interior. Such effects are expected
in galaxies that have undergone collisions or merging with other
galaxies in the past few billion years. The dark knots and lanes of
dust, prominent in the featured image, indicate that one or more of the
devoured galaxies were spiral galaxies. NGC 1316 spans about 50,000
light years and lies about 60 million light years away toward the
constellation of the Furnace (Fornax).

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy magnet
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 27

The Vertical Magnetic Field of NGC 5775
Image Credit: NRAO, NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Text: Jayanne
English (U. Manitoba)

Explanation: How far do magnetic fields extend up and out of spiral
galaxies? For decades astronomers knew only that some spiral galaxies
had magnetic fields. However, after NRAO's Very Large Array (VLA) radio
telescope (popularized in the movie Contact) was upgraded in 2011, it
was unexpectedly discovered that these fields could extend vertically
away from the disk by several thousand light-years. The featured image
of edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 5775, observed in the CHANG-ES (Continuum
Halos in Nearby Galaxies) survey, also reveals spurs of magnetic field
lines that may be common in spirals. Analogous to iron filings around a
bar magnet, radiation from electrons trace galactic magnetic field
lines by spiraling around these lines at almost the speed of light. The
filaments in this image are constructed from those tracks in VLA data.
The visible light image, constructed from Hubble Space Telescope data,
shows pink gaseous regions where stars are born. It seems that winds
from these regions help form the magnificently extended galactic
magnetic fields.

Tomorrow's picture: Messier 66 Close Up
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 28

Messier 66 Close Up
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Leo Shatz

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 66 lies a mere 35
million light-years away. The gorgeous island universe is about 100
thousand light-years across, similar in size to the Milky Way. This
reprocessed Hubble Space Telescope close-up view spans a region about
30,000 light-years wide around the galactic core. It shows the galaxy's
disk dramatically inclined to our line-of-sight. Surrounding its bright
core, the likely home of a supermassive black hole, obscuring dust
lanes and young, blue star clusters sweep along spiral arms dotted with
the tell-tale glow of pinksh star forming regions. Messier 66, also
known as NGC 3627, is the brightest of the three galaxies in the
gravitationaly interacting Leo Triplet.

Tomorrow's picture: North America from North America
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 29

North American Nightscape
Composite Image Credit & Copyright: Liron Gertsman

Explanation: On January 21, light from the Moon near first quarter
illuminated the foreground in this snowy mountain and night scene.
Known as The Lions, the striking pair of mountain peaks are north of
Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, North America, planet Earth.
Poised above the twin summits, left of Deneb alpha star of the
constellation Cygnus, are emission regions NGC 7000 and IC 5070. Part
of a large star forming complex about 1,500 light-years from Vancouver,
they shine with the characteristic red glow of atomic hydrogen gas.
Outlines of the bright emission regions suggest their popular names,
The North America Nebula and The Pelican Nebula. The well-planned, deep
nightscape is a composite of consecutive exposures made with a modified
digital camera and telephoto lens. Foreground exposures were made with
camera fixed to a tripod, background exposures were made tracking the
sky. The result preserves sharp natural detail and reveals a range of
brightness and color that your eye can't quite see on its own.

Tomorrow's picture: southern sky from 38,000 feet
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 30

Southern Sky from 38,000 Feet
Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner

Explanation: Celestial sights of the southern sky shine above a cloudy
planet Earth in this gorgeous night sky view. The scene was captured
from an airliner's flight deck at 38,000 feet on a steady westbound
ride to Lima, Peru. To produce the sharp airborne astrophotograph, the
best of a series of short exposures were selected and digitally
stacked. The broad band of the southern Milky Way begins at top left
with the dark Coalsack Nebula and Southern Cross. Its expanse of
diffuse starlight encompasses the the Carina Nebula and large Gum
Nebula toward the right. Canopus, alpha star of Carina and second
brightest star in Earth's night is easy to spot below the Milky Way, as
is the dwarf galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Small
Magellanic cloud just peeks above the cloudy horizon. Of course, the
South Celestial Pole also lies within the starry southern frame.

Tomorrow's picture: rocks from space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 January 31

Asteroids in the Distance
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; R. Evans & K. Stapelfeldt (JPL)

Explanation: Rocks from space hit Earth every day. The larger the rock,
though, the less often Earth is struck. Many kilograms of space dust
pitter to Earth daily. Larger bits appear initially as a bright meteor.
Baseball-sized rocks and ice-balls streak through our atmosphere daily,
most evaporating quickly to nothing. Significant threats do exist for
rocks near 100 meters in diameter, which strike the Earth roughly every
1000 years. An object this size could cause significant tsunamis were
it to strike an ocean, potentially devastating even distant shores. A
collision with a massive asteroid, over 1 km across, is more rare,
occurring typically millions of years apart, but could have truly
global consequences. Many asteroids remain undiscovered. In the
featured image, one such asteroid -- shown by the long blue streak --
was found by chance in 1998 by the Hubble Space Telescope. A collision
with a large asteroid would not affect Earth's orbit so much as raise
dust that would affect Earth's climate. One likely result is a global
extinction of many species of life, possibly dwarfing the ongoing
extinction occurring now.

Tomorrow's picture: bunny-moon
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 1

Lunar Halo over Snowy Trees
Image Credit & Copyright: G÷ran Strand

Explanation: Have you ever seen a halo around the Moon? This fairly
common sight occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny
ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal acts like a
miniature lens. Because most of the crystals have a similar elongated
hexagonal shape, light entering one crystal face and exiting through
the opposing face refracts 22 degrees, which corresponds to the radius
of the Moon Halo. A similar Sun Halo may be visible during the day.
Exactly how ice-crystals form in clouds remains a topic of research. In
the featured image taken last week from ╓stersund, Sweden, a complete
lunar halo was captured over snowy trees and rabbit tracks.

APOD is available via Instagram: in English, Indonesian, Persian, and
Portuguese
Tomorrow's picture: meteor streak and drift
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 2

A Colorful Quadrantid Meteor
Image Credit & Copyright: Frank Kuszaj

Explanation: Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually
cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured is a
Quadrantids meteor captured by camera over Missouri, USA, early this
month that was not only impressively bright, but colorful. The radiant
grit, likely cast off by asteroid 2003 EH1, blazed a path across
Earth's atmosphere. Colors in meteors usually originate from ionized
elements released as the meteor disintegrates, with blue-green
typically originating from magnesium, calcium radiating violet, and
nickel glowing green. Red, however, typically originates from energized
nitrogen and oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. This bright meteoric
fireball was gone in a flash -- less than a second -- but it left a
wind-blown ionization trail that remained visible for several minutes.

APOD is available via Facebook: in English, Catalan and Portuguese
Tomorrow's picture: moon rock roll
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 3

Found on the Moon: Candidate for Oldest Known Earth Rock
Video Credit: NASA, Astromaterials 3D, Erika Blumenfeld et al.

Explanation: Was the oldest known rock on Earth found on the Moon?
Quite possibly. The story opens with the Apollo 14 lunar mission. Lunar
sample 14321, a large rock found in Cone crater by astronaut Alan
Shepard, when analyzed back on Earth, was found to have a fragment that
was a much better match to Earth rocks than other Moon rocks. Even more
surprising, that rock section has recently been dated back 4 billion
years, making it older, to within measurement uncertainty, than any
rock ever found on Earth. A leading hypothesis now holds that an
ancient comet or asteroid impact launched Earth rocks into the Solar
System, some of which fell back to the Moon, became mixed with heated
lunar soil and other rocks, cooled, and re-fragmented. The video
features an internal X-ray scan of 14321 showing multiple sections with
markedly different chemistries. Moon rocks will continue to be studied
to learn a more complete history of the Moon, the Earth, and the early
Solar System. Friday marks the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 14
landing on the Moon.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 4

Apollo 14: A View from Antares
Image Credit: Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14, NASA; Mosaic - Eric M. Jones

Explanation: Fifty years ago this Friday, Apollo 14's Lunar Module
Antares landed on the Moon. Toward the end of the stay astronaut Ed
Mitchell snapped a series of photos of the lunar surface while looking
out a window, assembled into this detailed mosaic by Apollo Lunar
Surface Journal editor Eric Jones. The view looks across the Fra Mauro
highlands to the northwest of the landing site after the Apollo 14
astronauts had completed their second and final walk on the Moon.
Prominent in the foreground is their Modular Equipment Transporter, a
two-wheeled, rickshaw-like device used to carry tools and samples. Near
the horizon at top center is a 1.5 meter wide boulder dubbed Turtle
rock. In the shallow crater below Turtle rock is the long white handle
of a sampling instrument, thrown there javelin-style by Mitchell.
Mitchell's fellow moonwalker and first American in space, Alan Shepard,
also used a makeshift six iron to hit two golf balls. One of Shepard's
golf balls is just visible as a white spot below Mitchell's javelin.

Tomorrow's picture: and back again
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 5

Apollo 14 Heads for Home
Image Credit: Apollo 14, NASA, JSC, ASU (Image Reprocessing: Andy
Saunders)

Explanation: Fifty years ago this Sunday (February 7, 1971), the crew
of Apollo 14 left lunar orbit and headed for home. They watched this
Earthrise from their command module Kittyhawk. With Earth's sunlit
crescent just peeking over the lunar horizon, the cratered terrain in
the foreground is along the lunar farside. Of course, while orbiting
the Moon, the crew could watch Earth rise and set, but from the lunar
surface the Earth hung stationary in the sky over their landing site at
Fra Mauro Base. Rock samples returned from Fra Mauro included a 20
pound rock nicknamed Big Bertha, determined to contain a likely
fragment of a meteorite from planet Earth. Kept on board the Kittyhawk
during the Apollo 14 mission was a cannister of 400-500 seeds that were
later grown into Moon Trees.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 6

A Northern Winter Night
Image Credit & Copyright: Lukasz Zak

Explanation: Snow blankets the ground in this serene forest and sky
view. Assembled in a 360 degree panoramic projection, the mosaicked
frames were captured at January's end along a quiet country road near
Siemiony, northeastern Poland, planet Earth. The night was cold and
between trees reaching toward the sky shine the stars and nebulae of
the northern winter Milky Way. Near zenith is bright star Capella, a
mere 43 light-years above the tree tops. Alpha star of the
constellation Auriga the Charioteer and part of the winter hexagon
asterism, Capella is a well-studied double star system. Follow the
Milky Way above and right of Capella and you might spot the familiar
stars of Orion in the northern winter night.

Tomorrow's picture: straggler stars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 7

Blue Straggler Stars in Globular Cluster M53
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

Explanation: If our Sun were part of this star cluster, the night sky
would glow like a jewel box of bright stars. This cluster, known as M53
and cataloged as NGC 5024, is one of about 250 globular clusters that
survive in our Galaxy. Most of the stars in M53 are older and redder
than our Sun, but some enigmatic stars appear to be bluer and younger.
These young stars might contradict the hypothesis that all the stars in
M53 formed at nearly the same time. These unusual stars are known as
blue stragglers and are unusually common in M53. After much debate,
blue stragglers are now thought to be stars rejuvenated by fresh matter
falling in from a binary star companion. By analyzing pictures of
globular clusters like the featured image taken by the Hubble Space
Telescope, astronomers use the abundance of stars like blue stragglers
to help determine the age of the globular cluster and hence a limit on
the age of the universe. M53, visible with a binoculars towards the
constellation of Bernice's Hair (Coma Berenices), contains over 250,000
stars and is one of the furthest globulars from the center of our
Galaxy.

Tomorrow's picture: ripple stars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 8

WR32 and Interstellar Clouds in Carina
Image Credit & Copyright: Ariel Cappelletti

Explanation: Stars can be like artists. With interstellar gas as a
canvas, a massive and tumultuous Wolf-Rayet star has created the
picturesque ruffled half-circular filaments called WR32, on the image
left. Additionally, the winds and radiation from a small cluster of
stars, NGC 3324, have sculpted a 35 light year cavity on the upper
right, with its right side appearing as a recognizable face in profile.
This region's popular name is the Gabriela Mistral Nebula for the
famous Chilean poet. Together, these interstellar clouds lie about
8,000 light-years away in the Great Carina Nebula, a complex stellar
neighborhood harboring numerous clouds of gas and dust rich with
imagination inspiring shapes. The featured telescopic view captures
these nebulae's characteristic emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen,
and oxygen atoms mapped to the red, green, and blue hues of the popular
Hubble Palette.

New: APOD now available in Bulgarian from Bulgaria
Tomorrow's picture: flashes of pulsar
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 9

Flashes of the Crab Pulsar
Video Credit & Copyright: Martin Fiedler

Explanation: It somehow survived an explosion that would surely have
destroyed our Sun. Now it is spins 30 times a second and is famous for
the its rapid flashes. It is the Crab Pulsar, the rotating neutron star
remnant of the supernova that created the Crab Nebula. A careful eye
can spot the pulsar flashes in the featured time-lapse video, just
above the image center. The video was created by adding together images
taken only when the pulsar was flashing, as well as co-added images
from other relative times. The Crab Pulsar flashes may have been first
noted by an unknown woman attending a public observing night at the
University of Chicago in 1957 -- but who was not believed. The
progenitor supernova explosion was seen by many in the year 1054 AD.
The expanding Crab Nebula remains a picturesque expanding gas cloud
that glows across the electromagnetic spectrum. The pulsar is now
thought to have survived the supernova explosion because it is composed
of extremely-dense quantum-degenerate matter.

Tomorrow's picture: lasing space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 10

Firing Lasers to Tame the Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Mu±oz / ESO; Text: Juan Carlos
Mu±oz

Explanation: Why do stars twinkle? Our atmosphere is to blame as
pockets of slightly off-temperature air, in constant motion, distort
the light paths from distant astronomical objects. Atmospheric
turbulence is a problem for astronomers because it blurs the images of
the sources they want to study. The telescope featured in this image,
located at ESO's Paranal Observatory, is equipped with four lasers to
combat this turbulence. The lasers are tuned to a color that excites
atoms floating high in Earth's atmosphere -- sodium left by passing
meteors. These glowing sodium spots act as artificial stars whose
twinkling is immediately recorded and passed to a flexible mirror that
deforms hundreds of times per second, counteracting atmospheric
turbulence and resulting in crisper images. The de-twinkling of stars
is a developing field of technology and allows, in some cases,
Hubble-class images to be taken from the ground. This technique has
also led to spin-off applications in human vision science, where it is
used to obtain very sharp images of the retina.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 11

Cygnus Mosaic 2010 - 2020
Image Credit & Copyright: J-P Metsavainio (Astro Anarchy)

Explanation: In brush strokes of interstellar dust and glowing gas,
this beautiful skyscape is painted across the plane of our Milky Way
Galaxy near the northern end of the Great Rift and the constellation
Cygnus the Swan. Composed over a decade with 400 hours of image data,
the broad mosaic spans an impressive 28x18 degrees across the sky.
Alpha star of Cygnus, bright, hot, supergiant Deneb lies at the left.
Crowded with stars and luminous gas clouds Cygnus is also home to the
dark, obscuring Northern Coal Sack Nebula and the star forming emission
regions NGC 7000, the North America Nebula and IC 5070, the Pelican
Nebula, just left and a little below Deneb. Many other nebulae and star
clusters are identifiable throughout the cosmic scene. Of course, Deneb
itself is also known to northern hemisphere skygazers for its place in
two asterisms, marking a vertex of the Summer Triangle, the top of the
Northern Cross.

Tomorrow's picture: eye spiral
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 12

Spiral Galaxy NGC 1350
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby, Warren Keller

Explanation: This gorgeous island universe lies about 85 million
light-years distant in the southern constellation Fornax. Inhabited by
young blue star clusters, the tightly wound spiral arms of NGC 1350
seem to join in a circle around the galaxy's large, bright nucleus,
giving it the appearance of a cosmic eye. In fact, NGC 1350 is about
130,000 light-years across. That makes it as large or slightly larger
than the Milky Way. For earth-based astronomers, NGC 1350 is seen on
the outskirts of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, but its estimated
distance suggests that it is not itself a cluster member. Of course,
the bright spiky stars in the foreground of this telescopic field of
view are members of our own spiral Milky Way galaxy.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 13

Stereo Eros
Image Credit: NEAR Project, JHU APL, NASA

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid
433 Eros. Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 years, the near-Earth
asteroid is named for the Greek god of love. Still, its shape more
closely resembles a lumpy potato than a heart. Eros is a diminutive 40
x 14 x 14 kilometer world of undulating horizons, craters, boulders and
valleys. Its unsettling scale and unromantic shape are emphasized in
this mosaic of images from the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft processed to
yield a stereo anaglyphic view. Along with dramatic chiaroscuro, NEAR
Shoemaker's 3-D imaging provided important measurements of the
asteroid's landforms and structures, and clues to the origin of this
city-sized chunk of Solar System. The smallest features visible here
are about 30 meters across. Beginning on February 14, 2000, historic
NEAR Shoemaker spent a year in orbit around Eros, the first spacecraft
to orbit an asteroid. Twenty years ago, on February 12 2001, it landed
on Eros, the first ever landing on an asteroid's surface. NEAR
Shoemaker's final transmission from the surface of Eros was on February
28, 2001.

Tomorrow's picture: a name for NGC 2237
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 14

Long Stem Rosette Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block & Tim Puckett

Explanation: Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet?
The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to
diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula, at the top of
the image, atop a long stem of glowing hydrogen gas. Inside the nebula
lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These
stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and
their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center,
insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the
hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette
Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years
away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation
of the Unicorn (Monoceros).

Jump around the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: seven minutes of terror
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 15

Landing on Mars: Seven Minutes of Terror
Video Credit: NASA, JPL

Explanation: Starting Thursday, there may be an amazing new robotic
explorer on Mars. Or there may be a new pile of junk. It all likely
depends on things going correctly in the minutes after the Mars 2020
mission arrives at its new home planet and attempts to deploy the
Perseverance rover. Arguably the most sophisticated landing yet
attempted on the red planet, consecutive precision events will involve
a heat shield, a parachute, several rocket maneuvers, and the automatic
operation of an unusual device called a Sky Crane. Thursday's Seven
Minutes of Terror echo the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars in
2012, as depicted in the featured video. If successful, the car-sized
Perseverance rover will rest on the surface of Mars, soon to begin
exploring Jezero Crater to better determine the habitability of this
seemingly barren world to life -- past, present, and future. Although
multiple media outlets may cover this event, one way to watch these
landing events unfold is on the NASA channel live on the web.

News: NASA Perseverance Coverage
Tomorrow's picture: seven more minutes
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 16

Perseverance: Seven Minutes to Mars
Video Credit: NASA, JPL

Explanation: How hard is it to land safely on Mars? So hard that many
more attempts have failed than succeeded. The next attempt will be on
Thursday. The main problem is that the Martian atmosphere is too thick
to ignore -- or it will melt your spacecraft. On the other hand, the
atmosphere is too thin to rely on parachutes -- or your spacecraft will
crash land. Therefore, as outlined in the featured video, the
Perseverance lander will lose much of its high speed by deploying a
huge parachute, but then switch to rockets, and finally, assuming
everything goes right, culminate with a hovering Sky Crane that will
slowly lower the car-sized Perseverance rover to the surface with
ropes. It may sound crazy, but the Curiosity rover was placed on Mars
using a similar method in 2012. From atmospheric entry to surface
touch-down takes about seven minutes, all coordinated by an onboard
computer because Mars is too far away for rapid interactive
communication. During this time, humans on Earth will simply wait to
hear if the landing was successful. Last week, UAE's Hope spacecraft
successfully began orbiting Mars, followed a day later by the Chinese
Tianwen-1 mission, which will likely schedule a landing of its own
rover sometime in the next few months.

News: NASA Perseverance Coverage
Tomorrow's picture: light pillar with flare
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 17

Sun Pillar with Upper Tangent Arc
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Cohea

Explanation: This was not a typical sun pillar. Just after sunrise two
weeks ago in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, a photographer, looking out
his window, was suddenly awestruck. The astonishment was caused by a
sun pillar that fanned out at the top. Sun pillars, singular columns of
light going up from the Sun, are themselves rare to see, and are known
to be caused by sunlight reflecting from wobbling, hexagon-shaped
ice-disks falling through Earth's atmosphere. Separately, upper tangent
arcs are known to be caused by sunlight refracting through falling
hexagon-shaped ice-tubes. Finding a sun pillar connected to an upper
tangent arc is extraordinary, and, initially, took some analysis to
figure out what was going on. A leading theory is that this sun pillar
was also created, in a complex and unusual way, by falling ice tubes.
Few might believe that such a rare phenomenon was seen again if it
wasn't for the quick thinking of the photographer -- and the camera on
his nearby smartphone.

News from Mars: NASA Perseverance Coverage
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 18

Swiss Alps, Martian Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Jens Bydal

Explanation: Taken on February 6, this snowy mountain and skyscape was
captured near Melchsee-Frutt, central Switzerland, planet Earth. The
reddish daylight and blue tinted glow around the afternoon Sun are
colors of the Martian sky, though. Of course both worlds have the same
Sun. From Mars, the Sun looks only about half as bright and 2/3 the
size compared to its appearance from Earth. Lofted from the surface of
Mars, fine dust particles suspended in the thin Martian atmosphere are
rich in the iron oxides that make the Red Planet red. They tend to
absorb blue sunlight giving a red tinge to the Martian sky, while
forward scattering still makes the light appear relatively bluish near
the smaller, fainter Martian Sun. Normally Earth's denser atmosphere
strongly scatters blue light, making the terrestrial sky blue. But on
February 6 a huge cloud of dust blown across the Mediterranean from the
Sahara desert reached the Swiss Alps, dimming the Sun and lending that
Alpine afternoon the colors of the Martian sky. By the next day, only
the snow was left covered with reddish dust.

News from Mars: NASA Perseverance Coverage
Tomorrow's picture: pixels from space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 19

Mars Perseverance Sol 0
Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Mars 2020

Explanation: After a 203 day interplanetary voyage, and seven minutes
of terror, Perseverance has landed on Mars. Confirmation of the
successful landing at Jezero crater was announced from mission control
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 12:55 pm
PST on February 18. The car-sized Mars rover's Front Left Hazard
Avoidance Camera acquired this initial low resolution image shortly
after touchdown on mission Sol 0. A protective cover is still on the
camera, but the shadow of Perseverance, now the most ambitious rover
sent to the Red Planet, is visible cast across the martian surface.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.12-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 20

Perseverance: How to Land on Mars
Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Mars 2020

Explanation: Slung beneath its rocket powered descent stage
Perseverance hangs only a few meters above the martian surface,
captured here moments before its February 18 touchdown on the Red
Planet. The breath-taking view followed an intense seven minute trip
from the top of the martian atmosphere. Part of a high resolution
video, the picture was taken from the descent stage itself during the
final skycrane landing maneuver. Three taut mechanical cables about 7
meters long are visible lowering Perseverance, along with an electrical
umbilical connection feeding signals (like this image), to a computer
on board the car-sized rover. Below Perseverance streamers of martian
dust are kicked-up from the surface by the descent rocket engines.
Immediately after touchdown, the cables were released allowing the
descent stage to fly to a safe distance before exhausting its fuel as
planned.

Tomorrow's picture: the stars in a rose
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 21

NGC 2244: A Star Cluster in the Rosette Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Don Goldman

Explanation: In the heart of the Rosette Nebula lies a bright open
cluster of stars that lights up the nebula. The stars of NGC 2244
formed from the surrounding gas only a few million years ago. The
featured image taken in January using multiple exposures and very
specific colors of Sulfur (shaded red), Hydrogen (green), and Oxygen
(blue), captures the central region in tremendous detail. A hot wind of
particles streams away from the cluster stars and contributes to an
already complex menagerie of gas and dust filaments while slowly
evacuating the cluster center. The Rosette Nebula's center measures
about 50 light-years across, lies about 5,200 light-years away, and is
visible with binoculars towards the constellation of the Unicorn
(Monoceros).

Tomorrow's picture: report from mars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 22

Moon Rising Between Starships
Image Credit & Copyright: John Kraus

Explanation: What's that on either side of the Moon? Starships.
Specifically, they are launch-and-return reusable rockets being
developed by SpaceX to lift cargo and eventually humans from the
Earth's surface into space. The two rockets pictured are SN9 (Serial
Number 9) and SN10 which were captured near their Boca Chica, Texas
launchpad last month posing below January's full Wolf Moon. The
Starships house liquid-methane engines inside rugged stainless-steel
shells. SN9 was test-launched earlier this month and did well with the
exception of one internal rocket that failed to relight during powered
descent. SN10 continues to undergo ground tests and may be
test-launched later this month.

Tomorrow's picture: space fowl
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 23

Video: Perseverance Landing on Mars
Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Mars 2020 Mission Team

Explanation: What would it look like to land on Mars? To better monitor
the instruments involved in the Entry, Decent, and Landing of the
Perseverance Rover on Mars last week, cameras with video capability
were included that have now returned their images. The featured
3.5-minute composite video begins with the opening of a huge parachute
that dramatically slows the speeding spacecraft as it enters the
Martian atmosphere. Next the heat shield is seen separating and falls
ahead. As Perseverance descends, Mars looms large and its surface
becomes increasingly detailed. At just past 2-minutes into the video,
the parachute is released and Perseverance begins to land with
dust-scattering rockets. Soon the Sky Crane takes over and puts
Perseverance down softly, then quickly jetting away. The robotic
Perseverance rover will now begin exploring ancient Jezero Crater,
including a search for signs that life once existed on Earth's
neighboring planet.

Tomorrow's picture: old galaxy friend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 24

Spiral Galaxy M66 from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, Janice Lee; Processing & Copyright:
Leo Shatz; Text: Karen Masters

Explanation: It's always nice to get a new view of an old friend. This
stunning Hubble Space Telescope image of nearby spiral galaxy M66 is
just that. A spiral galaxy with a small central bar, M66 is a member of
the Leo Galaxy Triplet, a group of three galaxies about 30 million
light years from us. The Leo Triplet is a popular target for relatively
small telescopes, in part because M66 and its galactic companions M65
and NGC 3628 all appear separated by about the angular width of a full
moon. The featured image of M66 was taken by Hubble to help investigate
the connection between star formation and molecular gas clouds. Clearly
visible are bright blue stars, pink ionized hydrogen clouds --
sprinkled all along the outer spiral arms, and dark dust lanes in which
more star formation could be hiding.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 25

A Venus Flyby
Image Credit: NASA, JHUAPL, Naval Research Lab, Guillermo Stenborg and
Brendan Gallagher

Explanation: On a mission to explore the inner heliosphere and solar
corona, on July 11, 2020 the Wide-field Imager on board NASA's Parker
Solar Probe captured this stunning view of the nightside of Venus at
distance of about 12,400 kilometers (7,693 miles). The spacecraft was
making the third of seven gravity-assist flybys of the inner planet.
The gravity-asssist flybys are designed to use the approach to Venus to
help the probe alter its orbit to ultimately come within 6 million
kilometers (4 million miles) of the solar surface in late 2025. A
surprising image, the side-looking camera seems to peer through the
clouds to show a dark feature near the center known as Aphrodite Terra,
the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. The bright rim at
the edge of the planet is nightglow likely emitted by excited oxygen
atoms recombining into molecules in the upper reaches of the
atmosphere. Bright streaks and blemishes throughout the image are
likely due to energetic charged particles, and dust near the camera
reflecting sunlight. Skygazers from planet Earth probably recognize the
familiar stars of Orion's belt and sword at lower right.

Tomorrow's picture: fly over
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 26

Mars Perseverance Sol 3
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, ASU

Explanation: Stitched together on planet Earth, 142 separate images
make up this 360 degree panorama from the floor of Jezero Crater on
Mars. The high-resolution color images were taken by the Perseverance
rover's zoomable Mastcam-Z during mission sol 3, also known as February
21, 2021. In the foreground of Mastcam-Z's view is the car-sized
rover's deck. Broad light-colored patches in the martian soil just
beyond it were scoured by descent stage rocket engines during the
rover's dramatic arrival on February 18. The rim of 45 kilometer-wide
Jezero Crater rises in the distance. In the coming sols, Perseverance
will explore the ancient lake-delta system in the crater, hunting for
signs of past microscopic life and collecting samples for potential
future return to planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Hi Alan,
...Greets from my Telegram app!

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 26

Mars Perseverance Sol 3
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, ASU

Explanation: Stitched together on planet Earth, 142 separate images
make up this 360 degree panorama from the floor of Jezero Crater on
Mars. The high-resolution color images were taken by the Perseverance
rover's zoomable Mastcam-Z during mission sol 3, also known as February
21, 2021. In the foreground of Mastcam-Z's view is the car-sized
rover's deck. Broad light-colored patches in the martian soil just
beyond it were scoured by descent stage rocket engines during the
rover's dramatic arrival on February 18. The rim of 45 kilometer-wide
Jezero Crater rises in the distance. In the coming sols, Perseverance
will explore the ancient lake-delta system in the crater, hunting for
signs of past microscopic life and collecting samples for potential
future return to planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

At the website, they deliver a large picture that you can zoom in. But there is quite a but of distortion of the rover elements. Man.. they went to town on cable ties!

According to this they've already done a tonne of geology tests over the years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rocks_on_Mars


CIAO!

... [##### ###] has been cracked! Kudos & Thank$ to JH. :-)
--- tg BBS v0.6.4
* Origin: Fido by Telegram BBS from Stas Mishchenkov (2:460/256)

Re: Daily APOD Report
By: August Abolins to Alan Ianson on Fri Feb 26 2021 04:56 pm

At the website, they deliver a large picture that you can zoom in. But there is quite a but of distortion of the rover elements. Man.. they went to town on cable ties!

Yes, that image is made by putting 142 images together so there might appear to be more cable than there really is.

According to this they've already done a tonne of geology tests over the years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rocks_on_Mars

Yes, I've been looking at some of the findings on youtube, and listening to the martian wind.

Ttyl :-),
Al

... Unable to locate Coffee -- Operator Halted!
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 27

Perseverance Landing Site from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Explanation: Seen from orbit a day after a dramatic arrival on the
martian surface, the Perseverance landing site is identified in this
high-resolution view from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The
orbiter's camera image also reveals the location of the Mars 2020
mission descent stage, heat shield, and parachute and back shell that
delivered Perseverance to the surface of Mars. Each annotated inset box
spans 200 meters (650 feet) across the floor of Jezero Crater.
Perseverance is located at the center of the pattern created by rocket
exhaust as the descent stage hovered and lowered the rover to the
surface. Following the sky crane maneuver, the descent stage itself
flew away to crash at a safe distance from the rover, its final resting
place indicated by a dark V-shaped debris pattern. Falling to the
surface nearby after their separation in the landing sequence, heat
shield, parachute and back shell locations are marked in the
high-resolution image from Mars orbit.

Tomorrow's picture: northern lights
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 February 28

The Aurora Tree
Image Credit & Copyright: Alyn Wallace

Explanation: Yes, but can your tree do this? Pictured is a visual
coincidence between the dark branches of a nearby tree and bright glow
of a distant aurora. The beauty of the aurora -- combined with how it
seemed to mimic a tree right nearby -- mesmerized the photographer to
such a degree that he momentarily forgot to take pictures. When viewed
at the right angle, it seemed that this tree had aurora for leaves.
Fortunately, before the aurora morphed into a different overall shape,
he came to his senses and capture the awe-inspiring momentary
coincidence. Typically triggered by solar explosions, aurora are caused
by high energy electrons impacting the Earth's atmosphere around 150
kilometers up. The unusual Earth-sky collaboration was witnessed in
March of 2017 in Iceland.

Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: interstellar fowl
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 1

The Pelican Nebula in Red and Blue
Image Credit & Copyright: M. Petrasko, M. Evenden, U. Mishra (Insight
Obs.)

Explanation: The Pelican Nebula is changing. The entire nebula,
officially designated IC 5070, is divided from the larger North America
Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The Pelican,
however, is particularly interesting because it is an unusually active
mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. The featured picture was
processed to bring out two main colors, red and blue, with the red
dominated by light emitted by interstellar hydrogen. Ultraviolet light
emitted by young energetic stars is slowly transforming cold gas in the
nebula to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two, known
as an ionization front, visible in bright red across the image center.
Particularly dense tentacles of cold gas remain. Millions of years from
now this nebula might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance
and placement of stars and gas will surely leave something that appears
completely different.

APOD in world languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing),
Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French,
German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Korean, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian,
Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Taiwanese, Turkish, Turkish, and Ukrainian
Tomorrow's picture: more from mars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 2

Ingenuity: A Mini-Helicopter Now on Mars
Illustration Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Mars 2020 - Perseverance

Explanation: What if you could fly around Mars? NASA may have achieved
that capability last month with the landing of Perseverance, a rover
which included a small flight-worthy companion called Ingenuity,
nicknamed Ginny. Even though Ginny is small -- a toaster-sized
helicopter with four long legs and two even-longer (1.2-meter) rotors,
she is the first of her kind -- there has never been anything like her
before. After being deployed, possibly in April, the car-sized
Perseverance ("Percy") will back away to give Ginny ample room to
attempt her unprecedented first flight. In the featured artistic
illustration, Ginny's long rotors are depicted giving her the lift she
needs to fly into the thin Martian atmosphere and explore the area near
Perseverance. Although Ingenuity herself will not fly very far, she is
a prototype for all future airborne Solar-System robots that may fly
far across not only Mars, but Titan.

Tomorrow's picture: erupting earth
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 3

Stars over an Erupting Volcano
Image Credit & Copyright: Giuseppe Vella

Explanation: Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of
years. Located in Sicily, Italy, the volcano produces lava fountains
over one kilometer high. Mt. Etna is not only one of the most active
volcanoes on Earth, it is one of the largest, measuring over 50
kilometers at its base and rising nearly 3 kilometers high. Pictured
erupting last month, a lava plume shoots upwards, while hot lava flows
down the volcano's exterior. Likely satellite trails appear above,
while ancient stars dot the sky far in the distance. This volcanic
eruption was so strong that nearby airports were closed to keep planes
from flying through the dangerous plume. The image foreground and
background were captured consecutively by the same camera and from the
same location.

Please take a short survey in aesthetics & astronomy: Sonification
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 4

Mars in Taurus
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Explanation: You can spot Mars in the evening sky tonight. Now home to
the Perseverance rover, the Red Planet is presently wandering through
the constellation Taurus, close on the sky to the Seven Sisters or
Pleiades star cluster. In fact this deep, widefield view of the region
captures Mars near its closest conjunction to the Pleiades on March 3.
Below center, Mars is the bright yellowish celestial beacon only about
3 degrees from the pretty blue star cluster. Competing with Mars in
color and brightness, Aldebaran is the alpha star of Taurus. The red
giant star is toward the lower left edge of the frame, a foreground
star along the line-of-sight to the more distant Hyades star cluster.
Otherwise too faint for your eye to see, the dark, dusty nebulae lie
along the edge of the massive Perseus molecular cloud, with the
striking reddish glow of NGC 1499, the California Nebula, at the upper
right.

Please take a short survey in aesthetics & astronomy: Sonification
Tomorrow's picture: a little like Mars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 5

A Little Like Mars
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Barsa

Explanation: The surface of this planet looks a little like Mars. It's
really planet Earth though. In a digitally stitched little planet
projection, the 360 degree mosaic was captured near San Pedro in the
Chilean Atacama desert. Telescopes in domes on the horizon are taking
advantage of the region's famously dark, clear nights. Taken in early
December, a magnificent Milky Way arcs above the horizon for almost 180
degrees around the little planet with Orion prominent in the southern
sky. A familiar constellation upside down for northern hemisphere
skygazers, Orion shares that southern December night almost opposite
the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. But the Red Planet itself is the
brightest yellowish celestial beacon in this little planet sky.

Please take a short survey in aesthetics & astronomy: Sonification
Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 6

Perseverance Takes a Spin
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Mars 2020

Explanation: After arriving at Jezero Crater on Mars, Perseverance went
for a spin on March 4. This sharp image from the car-sized rover's
Navcam shows tracks left by its wheels in the martian soil. In
preparation for operations on the surface of the Red Planet, its first
drive lasted about 33 minutes. On a short and successful test drive
Perseverance moved forward 4 meters, made a 150 degree turn, backed up
for 2.5 meters, and now occupies a different parking space at its newly
christened Octavia E. Butler Landing location. Though the total travel
distance of the rover's first outing was about 6.5 meters (21 feet),
regular commutes of 200 meters or more can be expected in the future.

Please take a short survey in aesthetics & astronomy: Sonification
Tomorrow's picture: stellar nursery in infrared
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 7

Pillars of the Eagle Nebula in Infrared
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing: Luis Romero

Explanation: Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula.
Gravitationally contracting in pillars of dense gas and dust, the
intense radiation of these newly-formed bright stars is causing
surrounding material to boil away. This image, taken with the Hubble
Space Telescope in near infrared light, allows the viewer to see
through much of the thick dust that makes the pillars opaque in visible
light. The giant structures are light years in length and dubbed
informally the Pillars of Creation. Associated with the open star
cluster M16, the Eagle Nebula lies about 6,500 light years away. The
Eagle Nebula is an easy target for small telescopes in a nebula-rich
part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail
of the snake).

Tomorrow's picture: a comet's red tail
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 8

Three Tails of Comet NEOWISE
Image Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Lefaudeux

Explanation: What created the unusual red tail in Comet NEOWISE?
Sodium. A spectacular sight back in the summer of 2020, Comet NEOWISE,
at times, displayed something more than just a surprisingly striated
white dust tail and a pleasingly patchy blue ion tail. Some color
sensitive images showed an unusual red tail, and analysis showed much
of this third tail's color was emitted by sodium. Gas rich in sodium
atoms might have been liberated from Comet NEOWISE's warming nucleus in
early July by bright sunlight, electrically charged by ultraviolet
sunlight, and then pushed out by the solar wind. The featured image was
captured in mid-July from Brittany, France and shows the real colors.
Sodium comet tails have been seen before but are rare -- this one
disappeared by late July. Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) has since faded,
lost all of its bright tails, and now approaches the orbit of Jupiter
as it heads back to the outer Solar System, to return only in about
7,000 years.

Astrophysicists: Browse 2,400+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
Tomorrow's picture: mars 360
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 9

Perseverance 360: Unusual Rocks and the Search for Life on Mars
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, ASU, MSSS

Explanation: Is that a fossil? Looking through recent images of Mars
taken by the new Perseverance rover may seem a bit like treasure
hunting, with the possibility of fame coming to the first person to
correctly identify a petrified bone, a rock imprinted by an ancient
plant, or any clear indication that life once existed on Mars.
Unfortunately, even though it is possible that something as spectacular
as a skeleton could be identified, most exobiologists think it much
more likely that biochemical remnants of ancient single-celled microbes
could be found with Perseverance's chemical analyzers. A key reason is
that multicellular organisms may take a greater amount of oxygen to
evolve than has ever been present on Mars. That said, nobody's sure, so
please feel free to digitally magnify any Perseverance image that
interests you -- including the featured 360-degree zoomable image of
the rocks and ridges surrounding Perseverance's landing location in
Jezero Crater. And even though NASA-affiliated scientists are
themselves studying Perseverance's images, if you see anything really
unusual, please post it to popular social media. If your sighting turns
out to be particularly intriguing, scientifically, it is likely that
NASA will hear about it.

Tomorrow's picture: california spaced up
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 10

NGC 1499: The California Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Yannick Akar

Explanation: Could Queen Calafia's mythical island exist in space?
Perhaps not, but by chance the outline of this molecular space cloud
echoes the outline of the state of California, USA. Our Sun has its
home within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, only about 1,000 light-years
from the California Nebula. Also known as NGC 1499, the classic
emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. On the featured image,
the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light
characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons,
stripped away (ionized) by energetic starlight. The star most likely
providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas
is the bright, hot, bluish Xi Persei just to the right of the nebula. A
regular target for astrophotographers, the California Nebula can be
spotted with a wide-field telescope under a dark sky toward the
constellation of Perseus, not far from the Pleiades.

New: APOD now available in Arabic from Syria
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 11

Zodiacal Light and Mars
Image Credit & Copyright: Joshua Rhoades

Explanation: Just after sunset on March 7, a faint band of light still
reaches above the western horizon in this serene, rural Illinois, night
skyscape. Taken from an old farmstead, the luminous glow is zodiacal
light, prominent in the west after sunset during planet Earth's
northern hemisphere spring. On that clear evening the band of zodiacal
light seems to engulf bright yellowish Mars and the Pleiades star
cluster. Their close conjunction is in the starry sky above the old
barn's roof. Zodiacal light is sunlight scattered by interplanetary
dust particles that lie near the Solar System's ecliptic plane. Of
course all the Solar System's planets orbit near the plane of the
ecliptic, within the band of zodiacal light. But zodiacal light and
Mars may have a deeper connection. A recent analysis of serendipitous
detections of interplanetary dust by the Juno spacecraft during its
Earth to Jupiter voyage suggest Mars is the likely source of the dust
that produces zodiacal light.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 12

Messier 81
Image Credit & Copyright: Wissam Ayoub

Explanation: One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is
similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81.
Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century
discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern
constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The sharp, detailed
telescopic view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms,
pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes. Some dust
lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center), contrary
to other prominent spiral features though. The errant dust lanes may be
the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and the nearby
galaxy M82 lurking outside of this frame. M81's faint, dwarf irregular
satellite galaxy, Holmberg IX, can be seen just below the large spiral.
Scrutiny of variable stars in M81 has yielded a well-determined
distance for an external galaxy -- 11.8 million light-years.

Tomorrow's picture: one hand clapping
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 13

SuperCam Target on Ma'az
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS

Explanation: What's the sound of one laser zapping? There's no need to
consult a Zen master to find out, just listen to the first acoustic
recording of laser shots on Mars. On Perseverance mission sol 12 (March
2) the SuperCam instrument atop the rover's mast zapped a rock dubbed
Ma'az 30 times from a range of about 3.1 meters. Its microphone
recorded the soft staccato popping sounds of the rapid series of
SuperCam laser zaps. Shockwaves created in the thin martian atmosphere
as bits of rock are vaporized by the laser shots make the popping
sounds, sounds that offer clues to the physical structure of the
target. This SuperCam close-up of the Ma'az target region is 6
centimeters (2.3 inches) across. Ma'az means Mars in the Navajo
language.

Tomorrow's picture: flag day
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 14

A Flag Shaped Aurora over Sweden
Image Credit & Copyright: Mia Stσlnacke

Explanation: It appeared, momentarily, like a 50-km tall banded flag.
In mid-March of 2015, an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection directed
toward a clear magnetic channel to Earth led to one of the more intense
geomagnetic storms of recent years. A visual result was wide spread
auroras being seen over many countries near Earth's magnetic poles.
Captured over Kiruna, Sweden, the image features an unusually straight
auroral curtain with the green color emitted low in the Earth's
atmosphere, and red many kilometers higher up. It is unclear where the
rare purple aurora originates, but it might involve an unusual blue
aurora at an even lower altitude than the green, seen superposed with a
much higher red. Now past Solar Minimum, colorful nights of auroras
over Earth are likely to increase.

Follow APOD: Through the Free NASA App
Tomorrow's picture: meteor heard
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

┐

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 15

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/WJua8eXLX9o?rel=0

Meteor Fireballs in Light and Sound
Image Credit & Copyright: Thomas Ashcraft (Radio Fireball Observatory)

Explanation: Yes, but have you ever heard a meteor? Usually, meteors
are too far away to make any audible sound. However, a meteor will
briefly create an ionization trail that can reflect a distant radio
signal. If the geometry is right, you may momentarily hear -- through
your radio -- a distant radio station even over static. In the featured
video, the sounds of distant radio transmitters were caught reflecting
from large meteor trails by a sensitive radio receiver -- at the same
time the bright streaks were captured by an all-sky video camera. In
the video, the bright paths taken by four fireballs across the sky near
Lamy, New Mexico, USA, are shown first. Next, after each static frame,
a real-time video captures each meteor streaking across the sky, now
paired with the sound recorded from its radio reflection. Projecting a
meteor trail down to the Earth may lead to finding its impact site (if
any), while projecting its trail back into the sky may lead to
identifying its parent comet or asteroid.

Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: astro dust
__________________________________________________________________

< | Archive | Submissions | Index | Search | Calendar | RSS | Education
| About APOD | Discuss | >
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 16

IC 1318: The Butterfly Nebula in Gas and Dust
Image Credit & Copyright: Alan Pham

Explanation: In the constellation of the swan near the nebula of the
pelican lies the gas cloud of the butterfly next to a star known as the
hen. That star, given the proper name Sadr, is just to the right of the
featured frame, but the central Butterfly Nebula, designated IC 1318,
is shown in high resolution. The intricate patterns in the bright gas
and dark dust are caused by complex interactions between interstellar
winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity. The featured
telescopic view captures IC 1318's characteristic emission from ionized
sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms mapped to the red, green, and blue
hues of the popular Hubble Palette. The portion of the Butterfly Nebula
pictured spans about 100 light years and lies about 4000 light years
away.

Tomorrow's picture: aurora jupiter
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 17

The Surface of Venus from Venera 13
Image Credit: Soviet Planetary Exploration Program, Venera 13;
Processing & Copyright: Donald Mitchell & Michael Carroll (used with
permission)

Explanation: If you could stand on Venus -- what would you see?
Pictured is the view from Venera 13, a robotic Soviet lander which
parachuted and air-braked down through the thick Venusian atmosphere in
March of 1982. The desolate landscape it saw included flat rocks, vast
empty terrain, and a featureless sky above Phoebe Regio near Venus'
equator. On the lower left is the spacecraft's penetrometer used to
make scientific measurements, while the light piece on the right is
part of an ejected lens-cap. Enduring temperatures near 450 degrees
Celsius and pressures 75 times that on Earth, the hardened Venera
spacecraft lasted only about two hours. Although data from Venera 13
was beamed across the inner Solar System almost 40 years ago, digital
processing and merging of Venera's unusual images continues even today.
Recent analyses of infrared measurements taken by ESA's orbiting Venus
Express spacecraft indicate that active volcanoes may currently exist
on Venus.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 17

The Surface of Venus from Venera 13
Image Credit: Soviet Planetary Exploration Program, Venera 13;
Processing & Copyright: Donald Mitchell & Michael Carroll (used with
permission)

Explanation: If you could stand on Venus -- what would you see?
Pictured is the view from Venera 13, a robotic Soviet lander which
parachuted and air-braked down through the thick Venusian atmosphere in
March of 1982. The desolate landscape it saw included flat rocks, vast
empty terrain, and a featureless sky above Phoebe Regio near Venus'
equator. On the lower left is the spacecraft's penetrometer used to
make scientific measurements, while the light piece on the right is
part of an ejected lens-cap. Enduring temperatures near 450 degrees
Celsius and pressures 75 times that on Earth, the hardened Venera
spacecraft lasted only about two hours. Although data from Venera 13
was beamed across the inner Solar System almost 40 years ago, digital
processing and merging of Venera's unusual images continues even today.
Recent analyses of infrared measurements taken by ESA's orbiting Venus
Express spacecraft indicate that active volcanoes may currently exist
on Venus.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- SBBSecho 3.13-Linux
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.2)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 18

Stardust in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
Image Credit & Copyright: Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn, Stuart Heggie

Explanation: Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape,
across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. Dusty
nebulae reflecting light from embedded young stars stand out in the
nearly 2 degree wide telescopic field of view. With a characteristic
bluish color reflection nebula NGC 1333 is at center, vdB 13 at top
right, with rare yellowish reflection nebula vdB 12 near the top of the
frame. Stars are forming in the molecular cloud, though most are
obscured at visible wavelengths by the pervasive dust. Still, hints of
contrasting red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, the jets and shocked
glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars, are evident in NGC
1333. The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own
Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. At the estimated distance of the
Perseus molecular cloud, this cosmic scene would span about 40
light-years.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 19

Central Lagoon in Infrared
Image Credit & License: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Data Archive: MAST,
Processing: Alexandra Nachman

Explanation: Stars fill this infrared view, spanning 4 light-years
across the center of the Lagoon Nebula. Visible light images show the
glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds that dominate the scene. But this
infrared image, constructed from Hubble Space Telescope data, peers
closer to the heart of the active star-forming region revealing newborn
stars scattered within, against a crowded field of background stars
toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. This tumultuous stellar
nursery's central regions are sculpted and energized by the massive,
young Herschel 36, seen as the bright star near center in the field of
view. Herschel 36 is actually a multiple system of massive stars. At
over 30 times the mass of the Sun and less than 1 million years old,
the most massive star in the system should live to a stellar old age of
5 million years. Compare that to the almost 5 billion year old Sun
which will evolve into a red giant in only another 5 billion years or
so. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8, lies about 4,000 light-years
away within the boundaries of the constellation Sagittarius.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 20

The Leo Trio
Image Credit & Copyright: Francis Bozon

Explanation: This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around
the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo
Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent
constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd
pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be
introduced individually as NGC 3628 (right), M66 (upper left), and M65
(bottom). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look
dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles
to our line of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is
temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its
puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough
to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between
galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal
tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral
arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two
full moons) on the sky in a frame that covers over half a million
light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years.
Of course the spiky foreground stars lie well within our own Milky Way.

Tomorrow's picture: antikythera
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 21
The ancient Antikythera mechanism is shown, the oldest known orrery.

The Antikythera Mechanism
Image Credit & License: Marsyas, Wikipedia

Explanation: No one knew that 2,000 years ago, the technology existed
to build such a device. The Antikythera mechanism, pictured, is now
widely regarded as the first computer. Found at the bottom of the sea
aboard a decaying Greek ship, its complexity prompted decades of study,
and even today some of its functions likely remain unknown. X-ray
images of the device, however, have confirmed that a main function of
its numerous clock-like wheels and gears is to create a portable,
hand-cranked, Earth-centered, orrery of the sky, predicting future star
and planet locations as well as lunar and solar eclipses. The corroded
core of the Antikythera mechanism's largest gear is featured, spanning
about 13 centimeters, while the entire mechanism was 33 centimeters
high, making it similar in size to a large book. Recently, modern
computer modeling of missing components is allowing for the creation of
a more complete replica of this surprising ancient machine.

Tomorrow's picture: surround orion
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 22

From Auriga to Orion
Image Credit & Copyright: Alistair Symon

Explanation: What's up in the sky from Auriga to Orion? Many of the
famous stars and nebulas in this region were captured on 34 separate
images, taking over 430 hours of exposure, and digitally combined to
reveal the featured image. Starting on the far upper left, toward the
constellation of Auriga (the Chariot driver), is the picturesque
Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405). Continuing down along the bright arc of
our Milky Way Galaxy, from left to right crossing the constellations of
the Twins and the Bull, notable appearing nebulas include the Tadpole,
Simeis 147, Monkey Head, Jellyfish, Cone and Rosette nebulas. In the
upper right quadrant of the image, toward the constellation of Orion
(the hunter), you can see Sh2-264, the half-circle of Barnard's Loop,
and the Horsehead and Orion nebulas. Famous stars in and around Orion
include, from left to right, orange Betelgeuse (just right of the image
center), blue Bellatrix (just above it), the Orion belt stars of
Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak, while bright Rigel appears on the far
upper right. This stretch of sky won't be remaining up in the night
very long -- it will be setting continually earlier in the evening as
mid-year approaches.

Tomorrow's picture: old stones and mars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Alan Ianson wrote to All <=-

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of
our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 21
The ancient Antikythera mechanism is shown, the oldest known
orrery.

VERY interesting! This prompted me to actually pull this one up on
the web and look at it. :-)




... People say I'm apathetic, but I don't care.
--- MultiMail/Mac v0.52
* Origin: Omicron Theta (1:116/18)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 23

Mars over Duddo Stone Circle
Image Credit & Copyright: Ged Kivlehan

Explanation: Why are these large stones here? One the more famous stone
circles is the Duddo Five Stones of Northumberland, England. Set in the
open near the top of a modest incline, a short hike across empty fields
will bring you to unusual human -sized stones that are unlike anything
surrounding them. The grooved, pitted, and deeply weathered surfaces of
the soft sandstones are consistent with being placed about 4000 years
ago -- but placed for reasons now unknown. The featured image -- a
composite of two consecutive images taken from the same location -- was
captured last October under a starry sky when the Earth was passing
near Mars, making the red planet unusually large and bright. Mars
remains visible at sunset, although increasingly close to the horizon
over the next few months.

APOD via Instagram in: English, Indonesian, Persian, and Portuguese
Tomorrow's picture: lightning up jupiter
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 24
The pole of planet Jupiter is shown featuring aurora and lightning.

Aurorae and Lightning on Jupiter
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI; Text: Natalia Lewandowska

Explanation: Why does so much of Jupiter's lightning occur near its
poles? Similar to Earth, Jupiter experiences both aurorae and
lightning. Different from Earth, though, Jupiter's lightning usually
occurs near its poles -- while much of Earth's lightning occurs near
its equator. To help understand the difference, NASA's Juno spacecraft,
currently orbiting Jupiter, has observed numerous aurora and lightning
events. The featured image, taken by Juno's Stellar Reference Unit
camera on 2018 May 24, shows Jupiter's northern auroral oval and
several bright dots and streaks. An eye-catching event is shown in the
right inset image -- which is a flash of Jupiter's lightning -- one of
the closest images of aurora and lightning ever. On Earth (which is
much nearer to the Sun than Jupiter), sunlight is bright enough to
create, by itself, much stronger atmospheric heating at the equator
than the poles, driving turbulence, storms, and lightning. On Jupiter,
in contrast, atmospheric heating comes mostly from its interior (as a
remnant from its formation), leading to the hypothesis that more
intense equatorial sunlight reduces temperature differences between
upper atmospheric levels, hence reducing equatorial lightning-creating
storms.

APOD via Facebook in: in English, Catalan and Portuguese
Tomorrow's picture: sol 3048
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 25

Curiosity: Sol 3048
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech - Processing: Elisabetta Bonora & Marco
Faccin / aliveuniverse.today

Explanation: Before Perseverance there was Curiosity. In fact, the
Curiosity rover accomplished the first sky crane maneuver touchdown on
Mars on April 5, 2012. March 2, 2021 marked Curiosity's 3,048th martian
day operating on the surface of the Red Planet. This 360 degree
panorama from sol 3048 is a mosaic of 149 frames from Curiosity's
Mastcam above the rover's deck. It includes 23 frames of icy, thin,
high clouds drifting through the martian sky. The cloudy sky frames
were recorded throughout that martian day and are digitally stitched
together in the panoramic view. Near center is a layered and streaked
Mont Mercou. The peak of central Mount Sharp, rising over 5 kilometers
above the floor of Gale Crater, is in the distant background on the
left.

Tomorrow's picture: serpentine
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 26

The Medusa Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Josep Drudis

Explanation: Braided and serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest
this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21,
this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in
the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is
associated with a dramatic transformation. The planetary nebula phase
represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the
sun as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf
stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet
radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's
transforming star is the faint one near the center of the overall
bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments
clearly extend above and right of the bright crescent region. The
Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.

Tomorrow's picture: light weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 27

Exploring the Antennae
Image Credit & Copyright: Bernard Miller

Explanation: Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly
constellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the
two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide
in the course of the ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of
millions of years. But the galaxies' large clouds of molecular gas and
dust often do, triggering furious episodes of star formationi near the
center of the cosmic wreckage. Spanning over 500 thousand light-years,
this stunning view also reveals new star clusters and matter flung far
from the scene of the accident by gravitational tidal forces. The
remarkably sharp ground-based image includes narrowband data that
highlights the characteristic red glow of atomic hydrogen gas in
star-forming regions. The suggestive overall visual appearance of the
extended arcing structures gives the galaxy pair its popular name - The
Antennae.

Tomorrow's picture: floating away
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 28

SuitSat-1: A Spacesuit Floats Free
Image Credit: ISS Expedition 12 Crew, NASA

Explanation: A spacesuit floated away from the International Space
Station 15 years ago, but no investigation was conducted. Everyone knew
that it was pushed by the space station crew. Dubbed Suitsat-1, the
unneeded Russian Orlan spacesuit filled mostly with old clothes was
fitted with a faint radio transmitter and released to orbit the Earth.
The suit circled the Earth twice before its radio signal became
unexpectedly weak. Suitsat-1 continued to orbit every 90 minutes until
it burned up in the Earth's atmosphere after a few weeks. Pictured, the
lifeless spacesuit was photographed in 2006 just as it drifted away
from space station.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: years of sky
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 29

M64: The Evil Eye Galaxy
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA & the PHANGS-HST Team; Acknowledgement:
Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Who knows what evil lurks in the eyes of galaxies? The
Hubble knows -- or in the case of spiral galaxy M64 -- is helping to
find out. Messier 64, also known as the Evil Eye or Sleeping Beauty
Galaxy, may seem to have evil in its eye because all of its stars
rotate in the same direction as the interstellar gas in the galaxy's
central region, but in the opposite direction in the outer regions.
Captured here in great detail by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space
Telescope, enormous dust clouds obscure the near-side of M64's central
region, which are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen
associated with star formation. M64 lies about 17 million light years
away, meaning that the light we see from it today left when the last
common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees roamed the Earth. The
dusty eye and bizarre rotation are likely the result of a
billion-year-old merger of two different galaxies.

Tomorrow's picture: sprite mountain
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 30

Red Sprite Lightning over the Andes
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas
Observatory, TWAN)

Explanation: What are those red filaments in the sky? They are a rarely
seen form of lightning confirmed only about 30 years ago: red sprites.
Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive
cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter
balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10
percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of
upward streaking ionized balls. The featured image was taken earlier
this year from Las Campanas observatory in Chile over the Andes
Mountains in Argentina. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to
occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from
the side.

APOD via Instagram in: English, Indonesian, Persian, and Portuguese
Tomorrow's picture: black hole polarized
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 March 31

M87's Central Black Hole in Polarized Light
Image Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration; Text: Jayanne
English (U. Manitoba)

Explanation: To play on Carl Sagan's famous words "If you wish to make
black hole jets, you must first create magnetic fields." The featured
image represents the detected intrinsic spin direction (polarization)
of radio waves. The polarizationi is produced by the powerful magnetic
field surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of
elliptical galaxy M87. The radio waves were detected by the Event
Horizon Telescope (EHT), which combines data from radio telescopes
distributed worldwide. The polarization structure, mapped using
computer generated flow lines, is overlaid on EHT's famous black hole
image, first published in 2019. The full 3-D magnetic field is complex.
Preliminary analyses indicate that parts of the field circle around the
black hole along with the accreting matter, as expected. However,
another component seemingly veers vertically away from the black hole.
This component could explain how matter resists falling in and is
instead launched into M87's jet.

Tomorrow's picture: cleaning mars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 1

Rocket Launch as Seen from the Space Station
Video Credit: ISAA, NASA, Expedition 57 Crew (ISS);
Processing: Riccardo Rossi (ISAA, AstronautiCAST); Music: Inspiring
Adventure Cinematic Background by Maryna

Explanation: Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close
inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising
to Earth orbit as seen from the International Space Station (ISS). The
Russian Soyuz-FG rocket was launched in November 2018 from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a Progress MS-10 (also 71P) module
to bring needed supplies to the ISS. Highlights in the 90-second video
(condensing about 15-minutes) include city lights and clouds visible on
the Earth on the lower left, blue and gold bands of atmospheric airglow
running diagonally across the center, and distant stars on the upper
right that set behind the Earth. A lower stage can be seen falling back
to Earth as the robotic supply ship fires its thrusters and begins to
close on the ISS, a space laboratory that celebrated its 20th
anniversary in 2018. Astronauts who live aboard the Earth-orbiting ISS
conduct, among more practical duties, numerous science experiments that
expand human knowledge and enable future commercial industry in low
Earth orbit.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 2

NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble
Image Credit & Copyright: Acquisition - Eric Benson, Processing -
Dietmar Hager

Explanation: Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million
light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in
planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but
often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral
galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful
cosmic portrait
, though. Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports
characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star
forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. Remarkably, this
deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells.
The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from
satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the
distant past.

Tomorrow's picture: How far light travels over the weekend.
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 3

Ingenuity on Sol 39
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

Explanation: The Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, all four landing legs down,
was captured here on sol 39 (March 30) slung beneath the belly of the
Perseverance rover. The near ground level view is a mosaic of images
from the WATSON camera on the rover's SHERLOC robotic arm. Near the
center of the frame the experimental helicopter is suspended just a few
centimeters above the martian surface. Tracks from Perseverance extend
beyond the rover's wheels with the rim of Jezero crater visible about 2
kilometers in the distance. Ingenuity has a weight of 1.8 kilograms or
4 pounds on Earth. That corresponds to a weight of 0.68 kilograms or
1.5 pounds on Mars. With rotor blades spanning 1.2 meters it will
attempt to make the first powered flight of an aircraft on another
planet in the thin martian atmosphere, 1 percent as dense as Earth's,
no earlier than sol 48 (April 8).

Tomorrow's picture: In, Through, and Beyond
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 4

In, Through, and Beyond Saturn's Rings
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

Explanation: Four moons are visible on the featured image -- can you
find them all? First -- and farthest in the background -- is Titan, the
largest moon of Saturn and one of the larger moons in the Solar System.
The dark feature across the top of this perpetually cloudy world is the
north polar hood. The next most obvious moon is bright Dione, visible
in the foreground, complete with craters and long ice cliffs. Jutting
in from the left are several of Saturn's expansive rings, including
Saturn's A ring featuring the dark Encke Gap. On the far right, just
outside the rings, is Pandora, a moon only 80-kilometers across that
helps shepherd Saturn's F ring. The fourth moon? If you look closely
inside Saturn's rings, in the Encke Gap, you will find a speck that is
actually Pan. Although one of Saturn's smallest moons at 35-kilometers
across, Pan is massive enough to help keep the Encke gap relatively
free of ring particles. After more than a decade of exploration and
discovery, the Cassini spacecraft ran low on fuel in 2017 and was
directed to enter Saturn's atmosphere, where it surely melted.

Tomorrow's picture: remaining wisps
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 5
A closeup image of the Veil Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Veil Nebula: Wisps of an Exploded Star
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Levay

Explanation: Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way
star. About 7,000 years ago that star exploded in a supernova leaving
the Veil Nebula. At the time, the expanding cloud was likely as bright
as a crescent Moon, remaining visible for weeks to people living at the
dawn of recorded history. Today, the resulting supernova remnant, also
known as the Cygnus Loop, has faded and is now visible only through a
small telescope directed toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).
The remaining Veil Nebula is physically huge, however, and even though
it lies about 1,400 light-years distant, it covers over five times the
size of the full Moon. The featured picture is a Hubble Space Telescope
mosaic of six images together covering a span of only about two light
years, a small part of the expansive supernova remnant. In images of
the complete Veil Nebula, even studious readers might not be able to
identify the featured filaments.

Tomorrow's picture: sisters of mars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 6
Mars and the Pleiades star cluster set behind one-tree hill.

Mars and the Pleiades Beyond Vinegar Hill
Image Credit & Copyright: Kristine Richer

Explanation: Is this just a lonely tree on an empty hill? To start,
perhaps, but look beyond. There, a busy universe may wait to be
discovered. First, physically, to the left of the tree, is the planet
Mars. The red planet, which is the new home to NASA's Perseverance
rover, remains visible this month at sunset above the western horizon.
To the tree's right is the Pleiades, a bright cluster of stars
dominated by several bright blue stars. The featured picture is a
composite of several separate foreground and background images taken
within a few hours of each other, early last month, from the same
location on Vinegar Hill in Milford, Nova Scotia, Canada. At that time,
Mars was passing slowly, night after night, nearly in front of the
distant Seven Sisters star cluster. The next time Mars will pass
angularly as close to the Pleiades as it did in March will be in 2038.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 7

Threads of NGC 1947
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario; Acknowledgment: L. Shatz

Explanation: Found in far southern skies, deep within the boundaries of
the constellation Dorado, NGC 1947 is some 40 million light-years away.
In silhouette against starlight, obscuring lanes of cosmic dust thread
across the peculiar galaxy's bright central regions. Unlike the
rotation of stars, gas, and dust tracing the arms of spiral galaxies,
the motions of dust and gas don't follow the motions of stars in NGC
1947 though. Their more complicated disconnected motion suggest this
galaxy's visible threads of dust and gas may have come from a donor
galaxy, accreted by NGC 1947 during the last 3 billion years or so of
the peculiar galaxy's evolution. With spiky foreground Milky Way stars
and even more distant background galaxies scattered through the frame,
this sharp Hubble image spans about 25,000 light-years near the center
of NGC 1947.

Tomorrow's picture: Ginny's close-up
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 8

3D Ingenuity
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, ASU

Explanation: The multicolor, stereo imaging Mastcam-Z on the
Perseverance rover zoomed in to captured this 3D close-up (get out your
red/blue glasses) of the Mars Ingenuity helicopter on mission sol 45,
April 5. That's only a few sols before the technology demonstrating
Ingenuity will attempt to fly in the thin martian atmosphere, making
the first powered flight on another planet. The historic test flight is
planned for no earlier than Sunday, April 11. Casting its shadow on the
martian surface, Ingenuity is standing alone on four landing legs next
to the rover's wheel tracks. The experimental helicopter's solar panel,
charging batteries that keep it warm through the cold martian nights
and power its flight, sits above its two 1.2 meter (4 foot) long
counter-rotating blades.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 9

Messier 106
Image Credit: NASA, Hubble Legacy Archive, Kitt Peak National
Observatory;
Amateur Data & Processing Copyright: Robert Gendler

Explanation: Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the
stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was
discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain.
Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles
Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island
universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across
located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky
Way. Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a
composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes,
highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries
tracing the galaxy's spiral arms. It also shows off remarkable reddish
jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC
4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered
throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example
of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from
radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a
massive central black hole.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2021 April 10

Zodiacal Night
Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-Francois Graffand

Explanation: An intense band of zodiacal light is captured in this
serene mountain and night skyscape from April 7. The panoramic view was
recorded after three hours of hiking from a vantage looking west after
sunset across the Pyrenees in southern France. At 2838 meters altitude,
Mont Valier is the tallest peak near center. In the sky above, the
familiar stars of Orion and the northern winter Milky Way are
approaching the rugged western horizon. At the shoulder of Orion,
Betelgeuse is one of three bright yellowish celestial beacons. It forms
a triangle with fellow red giant star Aldebaran located below
Betelgeuse and to the right, and the red planet Mars. Mars shines just
under the band of the Milky Way, still immersed in the bright zodiacal
light.

Tournament Earth: Vote for your favorite image from NASA's Earth
Observatory
Tomorrow's picture: black hole
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)