Neptune: Big Blue Giant
17.08.1995

This picture was taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986 - the only spacecraft ever to visit Neptune. Neptune will be the farthest planet from the Sun until 1999, when the elliptical orbit of Pluto will cause it to once again resume this status.

Venus UnVeiled
22.08.1995

The surface of Venus is perpetually covered by a veil of thick clouds and remains hidden from even the powerful telescopic eyes of earth-based astronomers. However, using an imaging radar technique, the Magellan spacecraft...

New York at Night
19.11.1995

This tantalizingly clear photo of New York City at night was taken by the astronauts during the Space Radar Laboratory mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavor in March of 1990. In this view, oriented with East up and North to the left, a dense constellation of lights defines the major metropolitan areas.

Astro 1 In Orbit
17.08.1997

In December of 1990, the Space Shuttle Columbia carried an array of astronomical telescopes high above the Earth's obscuring atmosphere to observe the Universe at ultraviolet and x-ray wavelengths. The telescopes, known...

The Sun Also Rises
24.10.1998

Sunrise seen from low Earth orbit by the shuttle astronauts can be very dramatic indeed ( and the authors apologize to Hemingway for using his title!). In this breathtaking view, the Sun is just visible...

Construction of International Space Station Begins
23.02.1999

Move over Mir, here comes the International Space Station. In December 1998, the crew of Space Shuttle Endeavour started construction by joining the U.S.-built Unity node with the Russian-built Zarya module. A close look at the above IMAX(r) photograph will reveal two astronauts working on Unity.

NGC 604: Giant Stellar Nursery in M33
16.08.1996

The nebula cataloged as NGC 604 is a giant star forming region, 1500 light years across, in the nearby spiral galaxy, M33. Seen here in a snapshot by the Hubble Space Telescope, over 200 newly formed, hot, massive, stars are scattered within a cavern-like, gaseous, interstellar cloud.

Why is QSO 1229+204 so Bright?
24.08.1996

What causes the center of this barred spiral galaxy to light up brighter than almost anything in the universe? The quasar there is a good fraction of the way across our observable universe...

Europa's Ice Rafts
10.04.1997

The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa has shifted. Photographs released yesterday of Europa's surface taken by the spacecraft Galileo show that the smooth moon's icy surface is sometimes like a giant scrambled jigsaw puzzle. Pieces of Europa's surface, identifiable above, have rafted to new locations.

Dark Sky, Bright Sun
2.09.1997

In low Earth orbit there is not enough atmosphere to diffuse and scatter sunlight, so shadows are black and the sky is dark - even when the Sun shines. The harsh lighting produced this dramatic...