... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 December 31 . A Year of Resolving Cosmology . ... Explanation: This year, humanity learned that the universe is 13.7 billion years old . Before this year, the universe's age was thought to be about 13 billion years, but really only constrained to be between about 12 billion and 15 billion years old. ... About APOD | ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2001 January 21 . Resolving Mira . ... FOC , ESA , NASA . Explanation: Most stars appear only as points of light. ... Mira was discovered to be the first variable star about 400 years ago by David Fabricus. ... Possible explanations include gravitational perturbation and/or heating from Mira's white dwarf star companion. ... About APOD | ...

Supernova 1987A in LMC . One day in 1987, an astronomer by the name of Ian Shelton was making observations of the Tarantula Nebula in Large Magellanic cloud at Las Campanas Observatory, and he noticed something strange on his image. ... SN 1987A got as bright as 2.7, the only other recent SN even to come close was 1885A in M31 which got up to mag 6. ... Mag 4.5 . ... IAUC 4318 2/25/87 Type II? ... IAUC 7354 2/1/00 New structure in the inner ring . ... IAUC 7360 2/7/00 HST observation of new spot . ...

XXVIII General Assembly of the IAU, SPS15 Beijing, August 31, 2012 . N.N. Samus, S.V. Antipin "Variable Stars and Data-Intensive Astronomy" . During the 26th IAU General Assembly in Prague, the IAU Division V (Commissions 27 and 42) considered the future of variable-star catalogues. ... To discuss these problems and to look for their solutions, the IAU Commission 27, on behalf of the IAU Division V, created an informal working group, chaired by the GCVS editor, Dr. Nikolai Samus. ...

... Отмеченная наградами АстроТоп-а . ... 1) К участию в конкурсе допускаются все российские сайты на тему астрономии и космонавтики, и все русскоязычные сайты за пределами России. ... II) Сайт года . ... Победитель: Астронет - http://www.astronet.ru/ : подано голосов экспертов - 109 (всего - 129) . ... 3-е место разделили: Астрономия и Телескопостроение - http://www.astronomer.ru/ и Лента новостей космонавтики от Железнякова - http://www.cosmoworld.ru/spaceencyclopedia/hotnews/ : подано по 37 голосов; ...

... Here is a brief outline of the current theory of the events in the early history of the solar system: . A cloud of interstellar gas and/or dust (the "solar nebula") is disturbed and collapses under its own gravity. ... The gas cools off enough for the metal, rock and (far enough from the forming star) ice to condense out into tiny particles. (i.e. some of the gas turns back into dust). ... Once the larger of these particles get big enough to have a nontrivial gravity, their growth accelerates. ...