A Sharper View of a Tilted Planet

2004-11-18

These sharp views of tilted gas giant Uranus show dramatic details of the planet's atmosphere and ring system. The remarkable ground-based images were made using a near-infrared camera and the Keck Adaptive Optics system to reduce the blurring ...

Aurora Over Wisconsin

2004-11-17 Chris VenHaus

The auroral displays of the past week are being reported as some of the most beautiful in memory. In particular, impressive auroral bands fanned out over much of eastern North America after sunset on November 8. The multicolored aurora pictured ...

Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy

2004-11-16

How old is this galaxy? The nearby Local Group galaxy dubbed the Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy (SagDIG) is not only very small but also has relatively few elements more massive than helium. Now the lack of heavy elements might mean that ...

Burns Cliff on Mars

2004-11-15

The majestic walls of Endurance Crater contain layers of clues about the ancient past of Mars. In fact, the deeper the layer, the older the clue. The particular crater wall imaged above was dubbed Burns Cliff and was in front of the robot rover ...

Leonids Above Torre de la Guaita

2004-11-14 Juan Carlos Casado

The 1999 Leonids Meteor Shower came to an impressive crescendo. Observers in Europe observed a sharp peak in the number of meteors visible around 0210 UTC during the early morning hours of November 18. Meteor counts then exceeded 1000 per hour ...

Moon Over Shiraz

2004-11-13 Ahmad Karimi

rly morning risers around the world have enjoyed the sight of bright planets in this week's predawn skies - further enhanced by the celestial spectacle of the waning crescent Moon. From some locations the Moon was seen to pass in front of Jupiter ...

Missouri's Green Ribbon Sky

2004-11-12 ICSTARS Astronomy

The critics rave - "Amazing!", "Unbelievable!", "The best I've ever seen!" They aren't talking about a movie, though. Instead, even casual sky critics are remarking on November's stunning auroral displays, visible with surprising intensities well ...

Pastel Planet, Triple Eclipse

2004-11-11

This false-color image of banded gas giant Jupiter shows a triple eclipse in progress on March 28 - a relatively rare event, even for a large planet with many moons. Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope's near-infrared camera are shadows of ...

Leo A: Nearby Dwarf Irregular Galaxy

2004-11-10 IoP Lithuania

Why isn't this small galaxy simple? The above image and contemporary observations of small nearby galaxy Leo A were supposed to show it has a simple structure. Now Leo A is known to be a dwarf irregular galaxy - one of the most common types of ...

A Full Sky Multicolored Auroral Corona

2004-11-09 Philippe Moussette

On some nights the sky is the most interesting show in town. This fisheye picture captures a particularly active and colorful auroral corona that occurred two days ago over l'Observatoire de la Decouverte in Val Belair near Quebec, Canada. The ...