Pluto and its moon Charon are shown with the Sun and Milky Way in the background.
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Galaxy Puzzle
This image represents the puzzle scientists are trying to solve regarding the dark matter in the universe.
Astronomy Picture of the Day:
March 3, 2003
October 21, 2007 Get a Print!
March 3, 2003
October 21, 2007 Get a Print!
As long we can remember, human beings have yearned to fly. "From Dreams to Reality" begins with Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of a flying machine, followed by early gliders and a balloon. Other airborne craft follow: the Wright Brothers' airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, dirigible, biplane, weather balloon, hot air balloon, commercial airliners, Apollo launch, the Space Shuttle, and Skylab. In the early days of flight, all we could see were the rooftops of buildings and the patterns of our fields. As we ascended higher and higher we could see cloud formations, rivers with their tributaries, and - from space - Earth as a small blue sphere without boundaries. Truly, our long journey toward flight has broadened our perspective of both ourselves and our home planet.
The flags of the world are portrayed on a grid below the Earth, while a communications satellite orbits our home world.
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Our modern explorer, the spacecraft Ulysses, has traveled through the heavens to beam back its discoveries of the sun.
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Sailfishing in Starry Seas
For centuries fish have played an important role in the mythology of the heavens. In this representation, cosmic sailfish cavort through the starry skies over the Earth. The spots on the fishes' back and fins are miniature galaxies, similar to the galaxies in the sky and to the spiral cloud pattern on the Earth. This indicates that there is a commonality, a unity, with all things in the universe. Near the watery creatures we see a fishing line curving through space. Perhaps one of the fish will be caught, revealing the
secrets of the cosmos.
secrets of the cosmos.