Astronomy Picture Of The Day

The study of space objects such as planets, galaxies and stars is Astronomy. Some people do it for a living, others just to pass the time. That’s why when a web site or magazine offers an astronomy picture of the day it’s likely to garner a great deal of attention. There are so many things to see, that browsing such images will never become boring.

NASA of course is a primary source for an astronomy picture of the day. Their web site, nasa.gov, presents a new photo every day. It also has a multimedia center with video and images. These could be great sources for a person to create their own site that offers a new image each day. November 5, 2008 showed a close view of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The space probe Cassini took this image. It gets down to details the size of the bus. the ice on this moon is pretty unique it reflects 99% of the light that strikes it. Wear sunglasses. Cassini is scheduled for more flybys during its mission.

NASA’s images of the day go all the way back to June 16, 1995. It was a what if image of the Earth posing as a neutron star. This photo was created by the computer. The most interesting feature is that the constellation Orion is visible twice. That’s because a neutron star is dense enough to bend light from behind it to the front of it. That’s why some objects are seen twice.

September 8, 1995 brought a very interesting image of the central part of our own Milky Way galaxy from the NASA COBE Satellite. This image would normally not be visible because the dust in the galaxy obscures it in the visible spectrum. But COBE’s infrared imaging captured this amazing image.

January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2001 shared the same image, a drawing really, of the universe as defined in the last millennium. That’s because most people believe the year 2000 was the first year of the new millennium. However the third millennium actually began on January 1, 2001. Instead of arguing NASA used both dates. The image found at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html shows the progression of our picture of the universe from orbs that rotate around the Earth all the way to the big bang event creating an ever expanding cosmos.

It would be very hard to see each and every astronomy picture of the day. You’ll find them on NASA’s website.