Astronomy Picture of the Day . Floating Free in Space . ... Mars Pathfinder Super Pan . ... Comet Hale-Bopp's recent encounter with the inner Solar System allowed many breath-taking pictures. ... The Brightest Star Yet Known . ... This new brightest star is so far away and so obscured by dust, however, that it took the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm it. ... Surveyor At Mars . ... Comet Halley and the Milky Way . ... Comet Halley is the bright white streak near this photograph's center. ...