SICK Space image database

[DanontheMoon]

Astronomy Pics of the Day.
This stuff is featured on nasa.gov, usually one a day on the front page. Enjoy!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

If this should've gone under 'kool sites', and your name is bold, feel free to move it. :thumb2:

[fasterthanlight™]

Yea i stumbleupon that site all the time, its fantasticz

[FlawlessDog]

Cool pics!!
I've seen some of these before, but I never tire of them.



They need a good xml gallery ;)

[nobody]

You're like our very own embedded Space Digg!

[kdd]

^ Yeah! Great pictures. Explanation for one picture reads: "located a mere 170,000 light-years away." Yeah, let's get in the car and go. :P

[DanontheMoon]

Thanks, guys. It feels good to contribute. :beam:
I like when people are discussing interesting, mentally stimulating stuff.

[h88]

Enchanting! Cheers for the link, Dan. Are these copyrighted?

[Aquilonian]

I've heard somewere, however, that nasa put colors on those pictures, thats not how they really are

[glosrfc]

Now you can contribute to the scientific community while gazing at the pictures

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/

[glosrfc]

What's really neat is you can be presented with images like this, amazing example of merging galaxies (http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/dr6/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=207.47334123701600000000&dec=23.45474690081470100000&scale=0.2636985508900768396226415090&opt=&width=424&height=423&version=2), and there's a high probability that no one else has ever seen this before!

And even stranger images like this (http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/dr6/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=192.71277013338201000000&dec=8.14721406273162960000&scale=0.1317734088537827971698113206&opt=&width=424&height=423&version=2) or this (http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/dr6/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=130.46060910319801000000&dec=26.71320871753580000000&scale=0.2121515319032489127358490563&opt=&width=424&height=423&version=2) and this (http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/dr6/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=201.93006464948701000000&dec=22.14353604046490200000&scale=0.1808106224491911108490566035&opt=&width=424&height=423&version=2) - Just four images I've had to try to analysis in the last 10 minutes

[graylensman]

I've heard somewere, however, that nasa put colors on those pictures, thats not how they really are

In some cases, yes. But the color is not arbitrary - it's based on observation and measurements.

[DanontheMoon]

Most of the false colors are spectrums that your eyes, by themselves, are incapable of seeing. Visible light is a tiny part of the spectrum, many of these photos are in Infrared, X-Rays, radio, gamma rays. and various other bandwidths.

For instance, our night sky (if you're lucky enough to live somewhere that's not flooded with light pollution) is dark to our eyes. If you could see in the Microwave spectrum, however, the entire thing would glow as if you had Predator vision.

It mentions at the bottom whether or not it's copyrighted.
This one is: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070727.html
Credit & Copyright: Steve Mandel (Galaxy Images)

This one isn't: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060409.html
Molecular Cloud Barnard 68
Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO

I think the rules are, for the most part, if a government agency takes a pic and posts it without copyright restrictions, then it's public use.
After all, odds are your taxes (if you're in the States) helped pay for them. :D (Nice actually getting something out of that arrangement!)

[graylensman]

^and getting really cool stuff, to boot.

I like the shot of the Progress ship rendezvous with ISS. Ah, spaceships. :love:

[DanontheMoon]

In Soviet Russia, spacecraft docks YOU!!
I can't wait until that sort of thing is commonplace.

Galaxy Zoo rocks! I posted it somewhere else - but I have nothing against a repost of it, definitely a good find. They should make a Nebula zoo as well.

Think, each one of those fuzzy blobs is billions, maybe trillions of stars.
No, nothing happened at Roswell.. :whistle:

[kirupa]

That's one of my favorite sites. I check their pic of the day frequently. I used to even have a giant poster based on one of those images :bandit:

[indiasfinest]

^^true indian right there

[hybrid101]

pics here almost always are on digg, so yeah. seen some before:D