APOD: 2008 September 19 - Companion of a Young Sun like Star
This is big news. An actual photograph of a planet in another solar system. Within the last few years, they’ve found scads of planets around other solar systems, but I’ve never heard of there being a direct photograph.
From APOD:
this picture likely represents the first direct image of a planet belonging to a star similar to the Sun.
Does that mean there have been other direct images of planets around non sun-like stars?
In any case, this is incredibly cool.
APOD: 2008 July 28 - SDSSJ1430: A Galaxy Einstein Ring
This is some crazy, relativistic stuff right here—gravity bending light into a circle. The computer generated images of the individual parts are especially cool.
APOD: 2008 July 23 - High Cliffs Surrounding Echus Chasma on Mars
This is the kind of APOD I like: nobody really knows what’s going on here. This one is also great because I was sure it was an illustration. Nope—it’s a photo from the Mars Express orbiter. It really looks like an illustration in a science book from the 50s or 60s.
APOD: 2008 July 15 - Gas and Dust of the Lagoon Nebula
Pictures like this where they remove the stars are really striking. If most of what was removed was foreground stars, I suppose this gives a more realistic view of what it would be like to be closer.
APOD: 2008 July 14 - Changes in Angular Mars
I had never thought of this—since Mars is further from the sun than we are, we never see Mars (or any other planet further out than we are) in a crescent phase.
APOD: 2008 June 25 - What is Hannys Voorwerp
I love this kind of thing. We have no idea what this is. Here’s a green blob that some random person (not an astronomer) found by browsing images online. Astronomers don’t know what it is!
I might have to come back to this and write more later.
APOD: 2008 June 19 - The Star Streams of NGC 5907
Grand tidal streams of stars seem to surround galaxy NGC 5907.
I wonder what life is like (if it’s possible) around those far-flung wisps of stars. The victims of violence on a scale so grand, it’s undetectable on human timescales unless you’re millions of light-years away.
APOD: 2004 March 9 - The Hubble Ultra Deep Field
It amazes me that this is one continuous view of deep space. Everything is a galaxy. Lots and lots of tiny (as seen by us) galaxies.
