Science Source Feb 2010

The constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor; note the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and North Star.

Optical photograph of comet Giacobini-Zimmer taken on October 26, 1959. The comet was discovered in 1900 by M. Giacobini in France and independently r...

Star trails.

Orion over Zion National Park.

Astronaut Gardner hold "for sale," sign, making reference to the status of a recaptured communications spacecraft, which has been stranded since its i...

Space shuttle clouds over the ocean form the backdrop for this post-release panorama. Syncom IV-3 Satellite is partially visible at the frame's edge....

Space shuttle astronauts Griggs (right) and Hoffman join efforts to fasten one of two snag-type devices on the end of the Canadian-built Remote Manipu...

Space shuttle astronaut Gardner achieves a hard dock with previously spinning Westar VI Satellite. He uses a "stinger" device to stabilize the communi...

Comet West was discovered photographically by Richard M. West on August 10, 1975.

The sun, full disc.

Bennett's comet, from 4:40 - 4:52 a.m.

The Great Andromeda Galaxy (M31; NGC 224) is located 2.2 million light years from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. At 200 light years across it i...

Trifid Nebula (M20) is a cloud of gas and dust lying some 3000 light years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. The gas is mostly hydrogen, which...

Elliptical galaxies. Satellites of Andromeda Galaxy, M32 and M101.

Crab Nebula (M1) in Taurus. This is a supernova remnant, a shell of gas expanding from the explosive death of a massive star. The supernova that creat...

The Hercules Globular Cluster was discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714.

Solar Prominences, photographed on 8/13/1973.

Meteor Crater in Winslow, AZ known as the Barringer Crater. It lies at an elevation of about 1740 m (5709 ft) above sea level. It is approximately 1,2...

Auriga (left), Taurus (right) and the Pleiades (top), with a waterfall lit by moonlight.

The moon, above the Great Divide, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

The moon, behind some trees.

Total solar eclipse with "diamond ring" effect.

Star trails over the dome housing the 40 inch telescope at Mount Laguna Observatory, CA.

Astronauts in the neutralized gravity environment of the neutral buoyancy simulator.

Big Dipper rising above Mt. Laguna Observatory, California

The Northern Cross, setting in the western sky.

Star trails. Looking northeast (northern hemisphere).

Waxing Crescent Moon setting over San Diego, CA.

The Southern Cros, (far right), from Haleakala, Maui, at dawn. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on Big Island horizon.

Total lunar eclipse; red glow due to sunlight refracting through the Earth's atmosphere.

Lunar eclipse, 5 minutes before totality. Red glow due to sunlight refracted through the Earth's atmosphere and into the earth's shadow.

Astronaut Robert L. Stewart moves away from space shuttle Challenger during an extravehicular activity (EVA) session using a nitrogen-propelled manned...

Astronaut Robert L. Stewart gliding a few meters above the earth-orbiting space shuttle Challenger while testing a nitrogen-propelled manned maneuveri...

Occultation of Jupiter by the Moon; taken at 10 minute intervals.

Total eclipse of the moon shot at 7 minute intervals.

Showing the circumstances for a solar and lunar eclipse. The top illustration demonstrates the needed circumstances for a solar eclipse, and the botto...

Brenham Meteorite; classified as a pallasite meteorite, which has sponge-like iron.

Canyon Diablo Meteorite, found in 1891, in Arizona. Classified as an iron octahedrite.

The constellation Cassiopeia is a northern constellation.

Solar corona during a total eclipse. The corona is a cloud of low-density plasma (hot ions) surrounding the Sun. Normally it is not visible, being obs...

Giant loop prominence of hydrogen gases on the Sun.

Solar corona during a total eclipse with maximum sunspot activity. The corona is a cloud of low-density plasma (hot ions) surrounding the Sun. Normall...

Solar corona during a total eclipse with minimal sunspot activity. The corona is a cloud of low-density plasma (hot ions) surrounding the Sun. Normall...

Three photos of the sun's northern hemisphere showing rotation of sunspot groups.

Sun's surface. Sunspots appear as dark centers. The dark filaments are hydrogen prominences.

Photomosaic of moon. Assembled photographs of the moon's surface.

Multiple mirror telescope (MMT) at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona.

Milky Way lying in the zodiacal constellation of Sagittarius. The Milky Way is the band of light crossing the sky comprised of the millions of stars i...

Apollo II rises past the launch tower pad to begin man's first lunar landing mission. Kennedy Space Center.

Gemini VI Astronauts Walter M. Schirra Jr (left) and Thomas P. Strafford (right) checkout the spacecraft.