[{"date":"1997-05-08","explanation":"This enhanced composite image detailing structure in the coma and dust tail of Hale-Bopp was recorded May 5 - one day before the comet's passage from north to south across the plane of Earth's orbit. As the comet descends into murky twilight for northern hemisphere observers it will become increasingly easy to view from the south. Along with Southern Hemisphere observers, astronomers and a fleet of spacecraft of the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics program have been anxiously awaiting this north/south crossing.  The comet's interaction with the changing equatorial solar wind and magnetic field during this crossing is expected to produce distortions and disconnections of Hale-Bopp's ion tail. Whisker-like structures, probably part of the ion tail, are visible above extending from the lower left of the bright coma.","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9705/hb_puckett5_big.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Detailing Hale-Bopp\nCredit and Copyright:","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9705/hb_puckett5.jpg"},{"date":"2007-09-21","explanation":"X-rays from young stars and infrared light from stars and cosmic dust are combined in this false color image of a star-forming region in Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. The small star grouping is fittingly known as the Coronet Cluster. A mere 420 light-years distant, the Coronet Cluster offers a relatively close-up view of stars and protostars evolving with a wide range of masses. The observations suggest that energetic x-rays come from the hot, extended stellar atmospheres or coronae of the Coronet stars. The tantalizing multi-wavelength view spans about 2 light-years and was produced using data from the orbiting Chandra Observatory (x-ray) and the Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared).","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0709/coronet_irxray.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Coronet in the Southern Crown","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0709/coronet_irxray_c720.jpg"},{"copyright":"Adam Block","date":"2010-07-02","explanation":"Galaxies NGC 5216 (top) and NGC 5218 really do look like they are connected by a string. Of course, that string is a cosmic trail of gas, dust, and stars about 22,000 light-years long. Also known as Keenan's system (for its discoverer) and Arp 104, the interacting galaxy pair is some 17 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The debris trail that joins them, along with NGC 5218's comma-shaped extension and the distorted arms of NGC 5216, are a consequence of mutual gravitational tides. The tides disrupt the galaxies as they repeatedly swing close to one another. Drawn out over billions of years, the encounters will likely result in their merger into a single galaxy of stars. Such spectacular galactic mergers are now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1007/n5216_block.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Galaxies on a String","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1007/n5216_block_900c.jpg"},{"copyright":"Cory Poole","date":"2021-12-20","explanation":"This picture was supposed to feature a comet. Specifically, a series of images of the brightest comet of 2021 were being captured: Comet Leonard.  But the universe had other plans. Within a fraction of a second, a meteor so bright it could be called a fireball streaked through just below the comet. And the meteor's flash was even more green than the comet's coma.  The cause of the meteor's green was likely magnesium evaporating from the meteor's pebble-sized core, while the cause of the comet's green was likely diatomic carbon recently ejected from the comet's city-sized nucleus. The images were taken 10 days ago over the Sacramento River and Mt. Lassen in California, USA. The fireball was on the leading edge of this year's Geminid Meteor Shower -- which peaked a few days later. Comet Leonard is now fading after reaching naked-eye visibility last week -- but now is moving into southern skies.   Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2112/LeonardMeteor_Poole_2250.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"The Comet and the Fireball","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2112/LeonardMeteor_Poole_960.jpg"},{"copyright":"Junichi Watanabe","date":"2018-11-03","explanation":"A more creative search by a group of amateur astronomers in the Ehime Prefecture of Shikoku Island, Japan has found lunar L-O-V-E. Their secret was an examination of this sharp image of the First Quarter Moon. To discover it for yourself you'll need to look closely at details of the shadow and light along the terminator, the line between lunar night and day. Created by the contrast of shadowed crater floors with sunlit walls and ridges, the letter V is not too hard to find near the center of the image. Letters L and E are a bit more challenging though, but can be teased out of shadow and light along the terminator at the bottom. Of course, on the cratered surface of the Moon the O is easy ... . Moonwatchers on planet Earth should understand that like the famous lunar X, also seen here, these lunar letters are transient and only appear along the terminator in the hours around the Moon's first quarter phase. So your next chance for lunar L-O-V-E is the first quarter Moon on November 15.","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1811/LOVE1.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Lunar LOVE","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1811/LOVE1_1080.jpg"},{"date":"1996-11-22","explanation":"Planetary nebulae are strange. First, they\r are gas clouds and have nothing to do with our Solar System's\r planets. Next, although hundreds of planetary nebulae\r have been catalogued and thousands surely exist in our Galaxy,\r aspects of the formation process are still debated. But now yet\r another mystery has come to light: what created the fast-moving\r gas clouds that appear around planetary nebula?\r Dubbed FLIERs\r for Fast Low-Ionization Emission Regions, these knots of dense\r gas appear to have been ejected from the central star before\r it cast of the planetary nebula. Currently, no model can account\r for either their formation or longevity. In the above false-color picture\r of NGC 7662, the Blue Snowball Planetary Nebula,\r the FLIERs are featured in the image inserts. \r","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9611/bluefliers_hst_big.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Fliers Around the Blue Snowball Nebula\r\nCredit:","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9611/bluefliers_hst.gif"},{"copyright":"Tim Feresten","date":"2003-12-06","explanation":"Walk through these doors and up the stairs to begin your journey along a line from Jaipur, India toward the North Celestial Pole. Such cosmic alignments abound in marvelous Indian observatories where the architecture itself allows astronomical measurements. The structures were built in Jaipur and other cities in the eighteenth century by the Maharaja Jai Singh II (1686-1743). Rising about 90 feet high, this stairway actually forms a shadow caster or gnomon, part of what is still perhaps the largest sundial on planet Earth. Testaments to Jai Singh II's passion for astronomy, the design and large scale of his observatories' structures still provide impressively accurate measurements of shadows and sightings of celestial angles.","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0312/02mantar_feresten.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Jaipur Observatory Sundial","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0312/02mantar_feresten.jpg"},{"copyright":"Goran Strand","date":"2020-01-15","explanation":"Why would these clouds multi-colored?  A relatively rare phenomenon in clouds known as iridescence can bring up unusual colors vividly or even a whole spectrum of colors simultaneously. These polar stratospheric clouds clouds, also known as nacreous and mother-of-pearl clouds,  are formed of small water droplets of nearly uniform size. When the Sun is in the right position and, typically, hidden from direct view, these thin clouds can be seen significantly diffracting sunlight in a nearly coherent manner, with different colors being deflected by different amounts. Therefore, different colors will come to the observer from slightly different directions. Many clouds start with uniform regions that could show iridescence but quickly become too thick, too mixed, or too angularly far from the Sun to exhibit striking colors. The featured image and an accompanying video were taken late last year over Ostersund, Sweden.   Follow APOD in English on: Instagram, Facebook,  Reddit, or Twitter","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2001/IridescentClouds_Strand_1500.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Iridescent Clouds over Sweden","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2001/IridescentClouds_Strand_960.jpg"},{"date":"2000-06-30","explanation":"Gamma-rays are the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation. But these high energy photons penetrate and interact in normal materials and cannot be focused by lenses and mirrors like those in optical telescopes. So how do you make an image in gamma-ray light? One way is to use a patterned mask of material which can cast gamma-ray shadows on a digital detector array. The mask is called a coded aperture and the resulting shadow patterns can be used to construct a gamma-ray image of the source. For example, consider the picture above. In place of a coded mask, familiar objects were positioned in front of a detector array and illuminated with gamma-rays in a laboratory test. Do you recognize the shadow image? (Click on the picture for the focused visible light image.) Destined to fly on the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) satellite scheduled for launch in 2002, the detector array will be part of the imaging gamma-ray telescope, IBIS.","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0006/viswine_integral.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Vintage Gamma-Rays","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0006/graywine_integral.jpg"},{"date":"1999-08-01","explanation":"Pictured above is the first american astronaut to walk in space: Edward White.  White is seen floating outside the Gemini 4 capsule in 1965.  The term spacewalk is deceiving since astronauts do not actually walk - they float - usually without their feet touching anything solid. White was connected to the spaceship only by a thick tether.  He carried a Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit which expelled gas allowing him to move around.  A maneuvering device is necessary in the free-fall of space since there is nothing (besides the spacecraft) to push off of to guide movements.","hdurl":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/spacewalk_gem4_big.jpg","media_type":"image","service_version":"v1","title":"Walking in Space","url":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/spacewalk_gem4.gif"}]