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The Best Astronomy Pictures of 2004*
Robert Nemiroff
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What is APOD? Astronomy Picture of the Day
• Web site started at NASA in 1995• Written & edited w/ Jerry Bonnell (USRA/NASA)• Features a different astronomy image every day • Mirror sites now translate APOD into most major
languages daily• Hypertext is “best link”, leverages the full web• Archive is encyclopedic and searchable
– Need an astronomy image? Good chance APOD’s got it!
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Top Five NASA Imagesof All Time*
*Before 2004 and Yes, it’s subjective!
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STS-1: First Shuttle Launch
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Apollo 17 Lunarscape: A Magnificent Desolation
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A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence
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M16: Stars from Eagle's EGGs
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Top Five APOD Imagesof all Time*
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M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
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Looking Back on an Eclipsed Earth
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Inside the Eagle Nebula
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Image Credits
• Mars: All NASA
• Top NASA: All NASA (no joke!)
• Top APOD: – Earth at Night: DMSP Satellites– Microwave Background: WMAP, NASA– Sun: SOHO, NASA– Andromeda Galaxy: © Robert Gendler– Eagle Nebula: © AURA, NOAO, NSF
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Top 42 APOD Images of
2004*
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Comet Wild 2's Nucleus from Stardust
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Sol 5 Postcard from Mar
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An Orion Deep Field
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Galaxy Cluster Lenses Farthest Known Galaxy
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Rumors of a Strange Universe
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Moon and Venus over Corona Del Mar Beach
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The Hubble Ultra Deep Field
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Sedna of the Outer Solar System
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A Prominent Solar Prominence from SOHO
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A Berry Bowl of Martian Spherules
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Massive Star Forming Region DR21 in Infrared
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The Smooth Spheres of Gravity Probe B
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Comets Bradfield and LINEAR Rising
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The Tails of Comet NEAT (Q4)
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A Manhattan Sunset
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The Supergalactic Wind from Starburst Galaxy M82
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The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi
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Mammatus Clouds Over Mexico
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Venus and the Chromosphere
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Unusual Layers on Saturn's Moon Phoebe
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Cassini Images Saturn's A Ring
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Saturn's Rings in Natural Color
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Spicules: Jets on the Sun
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The Dark River to Antares
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The Double Haze above Titan
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Looking Out Over Mars
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Supply Ship Approaches the Space Station
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A Supernova in Nearby Galaxy NGC 2403
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Genesis Mission's Hard Impact
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Aurora Over a Communications Tower
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SpaceShipOne Wins the X-Prize
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Tantalizing Titan
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Storm Alley on Saturn
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Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy
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Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars
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Debris Disks Surround Distant Suns
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Announcing Comet Machholz
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Image Credits and Copyrights• Abell 1689 Warps Space
– ACS Team, ESA, NASA
• Comet NEAT Approaches the Sun
– Anton Spenko (Rezmon Observatory)
• A New Constellation Takes Hold
– Hugo E. Schwarz (CTIO), NOAO
• V838 Light Echo: The Movie
– H. Bond (STScI), A. Henden (USNO Flagstaff), Z. Levay (STScI), et al., ESA, NASA
• The 2MASS Galaxy Sky
– 2MASS, T. H. Jarrett, J. Carpenter, & R. Hurt
• Dumbbell Nebula Close-Up from Hubble
– C. R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt) et al., Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA), NASA
• Rollout of a Soyuz TMA-2 Aboard an R7 Rocket
– Scott Andrews, NASA
• SIRTF Streak
– Ben Cooper
• A Chicago Meteorite Fall– Ivan and Colby Navarro
• Zooming in on the First Stars– Visualization: Ralf Kaehler (ZIB) & Tom Abel (Penn.
State); Simulation: Tom Abel (Penn. State), Greg Bryan (Oxford) & Mike Norman (UCSD)
• Launch of the Spirit Rover Toward Mars – Dan Maas (Maas Digital), Ecliptic Enterprises
Corporation, Boeing, NASA • The Colorful Horsehead Nebula
– Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, J.-C. Cuillandre (CFHT), Coelum
• Big Mars from Hubble– J. Bell (Cornell U.), M. Wolff (SSI) et al., STScI,
NASA • The Andromeda Deep Field
– T. M. Brown (STScI) et al., ESA, NASA • Large Sunspot Groups 10484 and 10486
– Juan Carlos Casado • WMAP Resolves the Universe
– WMAP Science Team, NASA
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The best images from the first six years of APOD can be found here:
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Postscripts
• The Astronomy Picture of the Day website is available online at http://apod.nasa.gov/.
• The Universe: 365 Days book is available at most bookstores including the AMNH museum bookstore.
• See the Sky: Join the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York!