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Venus On The Horizon
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Venus On The Horizon |
| Explanation |
The month of October [ http://www.skypub.com/whatsup/oct97sky.html ] features a sky full of planets, including Venus as the brilliant evening star. Besides the sun and moon, Venus is the brightest object [ http://www.seds.org/billa/nineplanets/venus.html ] visible in Earth's sky. This month, Venus appears in early evening near the red planet Mars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970528.html ] and Mars' red giant rival Antares [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970922.html ] above the southwestern horizon. Because it is closer to the sun than Earth, Venus never strays far from the sun in its apparent position [ http://quasar.as.utexas.edu/courses/ast309/misc/DresdenCodex.html ] and is seen during the year as either a bright morning or evening star [ http://rowlf.cc.wwu.edu:8080/~skywise/legends.html#Evening Star ]. This beautiful sunset imaged from low earth orbit by the Atlantis space shuttle [ http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/atlantis.html ] crew in May 1989 also reveals the planet Venus blazing above Earth's horizon. It is a fitting image [ http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/STS30/10063311.htm ] for this mission and crew [ http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-30/sts-30-press-kit.txt ]. It was recorded following the successful release of the robot Venus-explorer Magellan [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/magellan.html ], the first planetary probe to be deployed from a space shuttle. |
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Comet Hyakutake and the Milk
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| Title |
Comet Hyakutake and the Milky Way |
| Explanation |
Two years ago, the Great Comet of 1996 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960208.html ], Comet Hyakutake [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/comet/hyakutake/ ], inched across our northern sky during its long orbit [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960314.html ] around the Sun [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/sol.html ]. Visible above as the bright spot with the faint tail [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960326.html ] near the picture [ http://www.psiaz.com/polakis/gco/gco.html ]'s center, Comet Hyakutake [ http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/comets_long/96B2.html ] shares the stage with part of the central band of the Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970517.html ], prominent in the picture's upper right. Also visible are Antares [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980726.html ], the bright orange star in the upper right, Arcturus [ http://www.windows.umich.edu/the_universe/Arcturus.html ], the bright star on the lower left, and the Pipe Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970621.html ], which is perhaps harder to find. Comet Hyakutake [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/index/Hyakutake.html ]'s unusually close approach [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960325.html ] to the Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980204.html ] allowed astronomers to learn many things, including that comets can emit much X-ray light [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960411.html ]. |
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