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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Mercury And The Sun
19.11.1999
Just days before the peak of the Leonid meteor shower, skywatchers were offered another astronomical treat as planet Mercury crossed the face of the Sun on November 15. Viewed from planet Earth, a transit of Mercury is not all that rare. The last occurred in 1993 and the next will happen in 2003.
A Sirius Leonid Meteor
18.11.1999
In the sky or on the web, did you watch this year's Leonid meteor shower? If you did, meteors flashing through the night sky should be a familiar sight. Recorded last year during...
A Leonid Meteor Explodes
17.11.1999
Tonight, a lucky few may see a meteor explode. Over the next 36 hours the Earth will pass unusually close to debris expelled from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, causing many sand-sized particles from this comet to enter and burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
A RADARSAT Map of Antarctica
16.11.1999
It's not easy to make a map of Antarctica. Earth's southern most continent is so cold and inhospitable that much of it remains unexplored. From space, though, it is possible to map this entire region by radar: by systematically noting how long it takes for radio waves to reflect off the terrain.
In the Shade of a Historic Planet
15.11.1999
For the first time, astronomers have recovered independent evidence that distant planetary systems exist. Last Friday, a team led by G. W. Henry (Tenn. State) and G. Marcy (UC Berkeley) announced the discovery of a shadow of a planet crossing a distant star.
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
14.11.1999
Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it.
Tempel Tuttle: The Leonid Comet
13.11.1999
Star trails streak this composite time exposure of Comet Tempel-Tuttle recorded by T. Puckett on January 26, 1998. Then passing through the inner solar system on its 33 year orbit around the Sun, Tempel-Tuttle brightened unexpectedly, but binoculars or small telescopes were still required to visually observe it.
1998 Leonid Fireball
12.11.1999
Will this be the year? Last year's Leonid meteor shower did not produce the meteor storm many had hoped for. Still, it put on a dazzling show with many bright fireball meteors. For example, this Leonid fireball, photographed through light clouds, eerily flashed across the skies of Monteromano, Italy on November 17, 1998.
Mercury And The Moon
11.11.1999
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and never moves far from our parent star in Earth's sky. Racing around its tight orbit, this well-done world is a little over 1/3 the diameter of Earth and is often lost to our view in the solar glare.
The Belt of Venus
10.11.1999
Although you've surely seen it, you might not have noticed it. During a cloudless twilight, just before sunrise or after sunset, part of the atmosphere above the horizon appears slightly off-color, slightly pink.
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