The Best Astronomy Pictures of 2004*

Robert Nemiroff

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!

Top Five NASA Imagesof All Time*

*Before 2004 and Yes, it’s subjective!

STS-1: First Shuttle Launch

Apollo 17 Lunarscape: A Magnificent Desolation

A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence

M16: Stars from Eagle's EGGs

Earth Rise

Top Five APOD Imagesof all Time*

Earth at Night

M31: The Andromeda Galaxy

Looking Back on an Eclipsed Earth

The Big Corona

Inside the Eagle Nebula

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

Top 42 APOD Images of

2004*

Comet Wild 2's Nucleus from Stardust

Sol 5 Postcard from Mar

An Orion Deep Field

Galaxy Cluster Lenses Farthest Known Galaxy

Rumors of a Strange Universe

Moon and Venus over Corona Del Mar Beach

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Sedna of the Outer Solar System

A Prominent Solar Prominence from SOHO

A Berry Bowl of Martian Spherules

Massive Star Forming Region DR21 in Infrared

The Smooth Spheres of Gravity Probe B

Eyeful of Saturn

Comets Bradfield and LINEAR Rising

The Tails of Comet NEAT (Q4)

A Manhattan Sunset

The Supergalactic Wind from Starburst Galaxy M82

The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi

Mammatus Clouds Over Mexico

Venus and the Chromosphere

Unusual Layers on Saturn's Moon Phoebe

Cassini Images Saturn's A Ring

Saturn's Rings in Natural Color

Spicules: Jets on the Sun

The Dark River to Antares

The Double Haze above Titan

Raining Perseids

Looking Out Over Mars

Supply Ship Approaches the Space Station

A Supernova in Nearby Galaxy NGC 2403

Cat's Eye

Genesis Mission's Hard Impact

Aurora Over a Communications Tower

SpaceShipOne Wins the X-Prize

Tantalizing Titan

Storm Alley on Saturn

Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy

Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars

Debris Disks Surround Distant Suns

Titan Surmised

Announcing Comet Machholz

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

The best images from the first six years of APOD can be found here:

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!