Astronomy Picture Of The Day

Examining objects and phenomena in space such as nebulae, galaxies and comets is Astronomy. It's important science, but for many people an enjoyable hobby. Thus whenever an astronomy picture of the day is offered to people, they grab it. There are so many things to see, that browsing such images will never become boring.

The first place to look for and astronomy picture of the day is NASA's website. Their web site, nasa.gov, presents a new photo every day. The multimedia section shows both images and videos. 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 photo was taken by a passing spacecraft. The image is so detailed that features about the size of a bus are viewable. The ice on this moon reflects nearly 100% of all the light that hits it. Talk about bright. The moon is so interesting that Cassini will continue to fly by for more images later in its mission.

NASA's images of the day go all the way back to June 16, 1995. It was a representation of the earth as if it were as dense as a neutron star. This astrophotography was created by the computer. One interesting element is that the constellation Orion in his visible twice. Even light from behind a neutron star is visible because the dense star bends the light all the way around it. This distortion causes double images of some objects.

September 8, 1995 was an amazing image of the central part of the Milky Way galaxy taken by NASA's 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 in 2000 and 2001 had the very same astronomy picture of the day. The reason both dates shared this image is that most people considered the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium. However the third millennium actually began on January 1, 2001. Instead of arguing NASA used both dates. the picture now online at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html is an indication of the universe as it is progressed in the mind of man.

There are countless days each with their own astronomy picture of the day. You'll find them on NASA's website.