A Green Flash from the Sun

1997-09-09 J. C. Casado

Many think it is just a myth. Others think it is true but its cause isn't known. Adventurers pride themselves on having seen it. It's a green flash from the Sun. The truth is the green flash does exist and its cause is well understood. Just ...

A Map of Asteroid Vesta

1997-09-08

Vesta is a huge rock 500 kilometers across that orbits out past Mars. Last week, the above map of Vesta created using the Hubble Space Telescope was released showing a rugged surface highlighted by a single crater spanning nearly the entire ...

Apollo 17: Boulder on the Moon

1997-09-05

Twenty five years ago humans roamed the Moon. Pictured here during the last moon landing, scientist-astronaut Harrison Schmitt was photographed standing next to a huge, split boulder. Apollo 17 was one of six missions that landed humans on the ...

Rivers in the Sun

1997-09-04

The surface of the Sun is shifting. By watching sunspots, it has long been known that our Sun rotates. It was also known that the center of the Sun rotates faster than the poles. Now, recent measurements by the Solar Oscillations Investigations ...

A Partial Eclipse in Southern Skies

1997-09-03 Olivier Staiger

Location is everything, especially if you want to see a Solar Eclipse. These fleeting events are only visible to those in the path of the Moon's shadow as it races across the Earth. This path is usually less than 200 miles wide while covering ...

Dark Sky, Bright Sun

1997-09-02

In low Earth orbit there is not enough atmosphere to diffuse and scatter sunlight, so shadows are black and the sky is dark - even when the Sun shines. The harsh lighting produced this dramatic effect as mission specialist Gregory Harbaugh ...

Infrared Helix

1997-09-01

Five hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius, a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix, a well studied and nearby example of a Planetary Nebula - typical of this final phase of stellar ...

Arp 230: Two Spirals in One?

1997-08-31

Is this one galaxy or two? Analysis of Arp 230 has shown evidence that this seemingly single spiral galaxy is actually the result of the recent collision of two spiral galaxies. The slow motion collision took place over about 100 million years ...

The United States at Night

1997-08-30 NOAA

This is what the United States of America looks like at night! Can you find your favorite US city on this image? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. The above picture is actually a composite of over 200 images made by ...

Cassini To Saturn

1997-08-29

Scheduled for launch in October, the Cassini spacecraft will spend seven years traveling through the Solar System -- its destination, Saturn. On arrival Cassini will begin an ambitious mission of exploration which will include parachuting a probe ...