omnianasa/nasa-apod-metadata huggingface dataset:
Working in Space (2004-05-23)
High above planet Earth, a human helps an ailing machine.  The machine, in this potentially touching story, is the Hubble Space Telescope, which is not in the picture.  The human is Astronaut Steven L. Smith, and he is seen above retrieving a  power tool from the handrail of the Remote Manipulator System before resuming work on HST in 1999 December.  For most astronauts, space is not a place for relaxation and vacation, but rather a place for hard work. Since many space missions involve costly equipment and complicated experiments, astronauts are usually people of considerable knowledge and training.  Although the hours may be long and work may be taxing, one frequently reported perk of working in space is the spectacular view.
Planets Over Easter Island (2004-05-24)
It isn't every day that planets line up behind a stone giant.  For one thing, it helps to have a good planet line-up, such as occurred in the sky just last month. For another, it helps to be on Easter Island, where over 800 large stone statues exist.  The Easter Island statues, stand, on the average, over twice as tall as a person and have over 200 times as much mass.  Few specifics are known about the history or meaning of the unusual statues, but many believe that they were created about 500 years ago in the images of local leaders of a lost civilization.  Pictured above, the Moon, Venus, and Mars can be seen behind  Ahu Tahai, a famous Easter Island statue.  The bright star Aldebaran is also visible.
Moon Between the Stones (2004-05-25)
Despite clouds and rain showers astronomer Phillip Perkins managed to spot a reddened, eclipsed Moon between the stones of this well known monument to the Sun during May's total lunar eclipse, from Stonehenge, England. When he recorded this dramatic picture, the rising Moon was only about 5 degrees above the horizon, but conveniently located through a gap in the circle of ancient stones. Although at first glance there appears to be an eerie, luminous pool of water in the foreground, Perkins notes that his daughter produced the artistic lighting effect. She illuminated a fallen stone and surrounding grass with a flashgun from her hiding place behind the large sarsen stone to the right of center. As the picture looks toward the southeast, the stone just below the Moon is one of the inner bluestones rather than the famous Heel Stone, which marks the northeast direction of the summer solstice sunrise.
At the Summit of Olympus Mons (2004-05-26)
From martian orbit, the Mars Express cameras looked down on the largest volcano in the solar system. The result was this stunningly detailed overhead view of the caldera or summit crater region of Olympus Mons. Fittingly named for the lofty abode of the gods of Greek mythology, Olympus Mons rises 21 kilometers above the surrounding plain or to about 3 times the height of Mt. Everest. The area pictured is 102 kilometers across and the caldera pits are up to 3 kilometers deep. For comparison, hawaiian volcanic calderas range up to 18 kilometers in diameter. Outlined by steep cliffs, Olympus Mons itself is about 600 kilometers in diameter.
Two Comets in Southern Skies (2004-05-27)
Wielding a very wide-angle lens, astronomer Gordon Garradd was able to capture two naked-eye comets in one picture looking toward the west from Loomberah, New South Wales, Australia. At the far left lies comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) and at the far right, comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT). Recorded on the night of May 20th, the area around each of the comets has been separately enhanced here, making it easier to discern their extended tails streaming away from the Sun. While comet T7 (LINEAR) is the brighter of the two comets, both are now fading. Still, they may be visible for northern and southern observers with Q4 (NEAT) easiest to spot in the north. Of course, with bright Venus near the center on the horizon and the lights of nearby Tamworth city glowing at the bottom right, the two comets are not alone in this heavenly view.
A Manhattan Sunset (2004-05-28)
Today, if it is clear, Manhattan will flood dramatically with sunlight just as the Sun sets precisely on the centerline of every street.  Usually, the tall buildings that line the gridded streets of New York City's tallest borough will hide the setting Sun.  This effect makes Manhattan a type of modern Stonehenge, although only aligned to about 30 degrees east of north.  Were Manhattan's road grid perfectly aligned to east and west, today's effect would occur on the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox, March 21 and September 21, the only two days that the Sun rises and sets due east and west.  If today's sunset is hidden by clouds do not despair -- the same thing happens every May 28 and July 12.  On none of these occasions, however, should you ever look directly at the Sun.
Cone Nebula Close-Up (2004-05-29)
Cones, pillars, and majestic flowing shapes abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust are buffeted by energetic winds from newborn stars. A well-known example, the Cone Nebula within the bright galactic star-forming region NGC 2264, was captured in this close-up view from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. While the Cone Nebula, about 2,500 light-years away in Monoceros, is around 7 light-years long, the region pictured here surrounding the cone's blunted head is a mere 2.5 light-years across. In our neck of the galaxy that distance is just over half way from the Sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri. The massive star NGC 2264 IRS, seen by Hubble's infrared camera in 1997, is the likely source of the wind sculpting the Cone Nebula and lies off the top of the image. The Cone Nebula's reddish veil is produced by glowing hydrogen gas.
Astronaut at Work (2004-05-30)
Did you ever have a day where everything got turned around and you just couldn't tell which way was up?  Fortunately, this didn't happen to astronaut James S. Voss on 2000 May 21, who spent six hours preparing to fix and upgrade the International Space Station.  Voss is shown above anchored in the clutches of  Space Shuttle Atlantis' mechanical arm, maneuvering outside the shuttle's cargo bay high above planet Earth.  This space walk was the 85th in US history and the fifth dedicated to the construction of the International Space Station.  The STS-101 mission returned after successfully replacing the station's batteries, lifting the station into a higher orbit, and replenishing needed supplies.
24 Million Kilometers to Saturn (2004-05-31)
Next stop: Saturn.  The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is approaching Saturn and will fire its engines to break into orbit around the ringed giant on July 1.  The robot spacecraft was launched in 1997 and rounded Jupiter in 2001.  As Cassini orbits Saturn over the next four years, it will swoop past many of Saturn's moons for unprecedented close-ups and even drop a probe onto Titan.  Pictured above, Cassini imaged Saturn two weeks ago as it closed to only 24 million kilometers out.  Visible are complex cloud patterns, thousands of rings, a shadow angle not visible from Earth, and a moon (if you can find it).
The Supergalactic Wind from Starburst Galaxy M82 (2004-06-01)
Star formation occurs at a faster pace in M82 -- a galaxy with about ten times the rate of massive star birth (and death) compared to our Milky Way.  Winds from massive stars and blasts from supernova explosions have created a billowing cloud of expanding gas from this remarkable starburst galaxy.  The above scientifically color-coded image highlights the complexity and origin of the plume by combining a wide field image from the WIYN Telescope in Arizona with a smaller high-resolution image from the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.  M82's aspect in optical pictures has led to its popular moniker, the Cigar Galaxy.  M82's burst of star formation was likely triggered a mere 100 million years ago in the latest of a series of bouts with neighboring large galaxy M81.
The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi (2004-06-02)
The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there.  The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light.  Blue light from the star Rho Ophiuchi and nearby stars reflects more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light.  The Earth's daytime sky appears blue for the same reason.  The red and yellow regions shine primarily because of emission from the nebula's atomic and molecular gas.  Light from nearby blue stars - more energetic than the bright star Antares - knocks electrons away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas.  The dark regions are caused by dust grains - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them.  The Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, well in front of the globular cluster M4 visible above on far lower left, are even more colorful than humans can see - the clouds emits light in every wavelength band from the radio to the gamma-ray.
Cosmic Construction Zone RCW 49 (2004-06-03)
Stars and planets appear to be under construction in dusty nebula RCW 49. This Spitzer Space Telescope false-color infrared view of the nearby stellar nursery shows that known, hot stars are well on their way to clearing out the nebula's central regions. But it also uncovers more than 300 newborn stars, seen here strewn throughout the cosmic dust clouds and filaments. The infrared data indicate the likely presence of protoplanetary discs around some of the infant suns, among the faintest and farthest potential planet-forming discs ever observed. Such exciting results give further support to the idea that planet-forming discs are a natural part of a star's evolution. A mere 14,000 light-years away toward the constellation Centaurus, the industrious RCW 49 is about 350 light-years across.
Sedna at Noon (2004-06-04)
Standing on Sedna - the solar system's most distant known planetoid - your view of the Sun at high noon might look something like this. An artist's dramatic vision, the picture shows the Sun suspended above the nearby horizon as a bright star immersed in the dusty ecliptic plane. Within the dust-scattered sunlight are more familiar members of the solar system, including planet Earth. But at a distance of about 13 billion kilometers (8 billion miles) Earth would only be visible in binoculars or a small telescope. In Sedna's dark, daytime skies, the noonday Sun is also joined by the faint stars and obscuring dust clouds of the Milky Way, suspended on the left above stark, ruddy terrain. For Sedna-based sky gazers, all planets have interior orbits and would remain close to the Sun in Sedna's skies. Of course, for earthbound astronomers, interior planets Venus and Mercury also remain near the Sun, with Venus scheduled for a rare crossing of the solar disc on June 8.
Apollo 17's Lunar Rover (2004-06-05)
In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours exploring the Moon's Taurus-Littrow valley while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. Cernan and Schmitt were the last humans to walk or ride on the Moon - aided in their explorations by a Lunar Roving Vehicle. The skeletal-looking lunar rover was just over 10 feet long, 6 feet wide and easily carried astronauts, equipment, and rock samples in the Moon's low gravity (about 1/6 Earth's). In this picture, Cernan stands at the back of the rover which carried the two astronauts in lawn-chair style seats. An umbrella-shaped high gain antenna and TV camera are mounted in the front. Powered by four 1/4 horsepower electric motors, one for each wheel, this rover was driven a total of about 18 miles across the lunar surface. Its estimated top speed was a blazing 8 miles per hour.
Mercury Spotting (2004-06-06)
Can you spot the planet? The diminutive disk of Mercury, the solar system's innermost planet, spent about five hours crossing in front of the enormous solar disk on 2003 May 7, as viewed from the general vicinity of planet Earth. The Sun was above the horizon during the entire transit for observers in Europe, Africa, Asia, or Australia, and the horizon was certainly no problem for the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft. Seen as a dark spot, Mercury progresses from left to right (top panel to bottom) in these four images from SOHO's extreme ultraviolet camera. The panels' false-colors correspond to different wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet which highlight regions above the Sun's visible surface. This was the first of 14 transits of Mercury which will occur during the 21st century, but the next similar event will be a much more rare transit of Venus this coming Tuesday. Need help spotting Mercury? Just click on the picture.   News flash: Venus to cross the Sun on Tuesday
Mammatus Clouds Over Mexico (2004-06-07)
When do cloud bottoms appear like bubbles?  Normal cloud bottoms are flat because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a very specific temperature, which usually corresponds to a very specific height.  After water droplets form that air becomes an opaque cloud.  Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that contain large droplets of water or ice that fall into clear air as they evaporate.  Such pockets may occur in turbulent air near a thunderstorm, being seen near the top of an anvil cloud, for example.  Resulting mammatus clouds can appear especially dramatic if sunlit from the side.  The above mammatus clouds were photographed last month over Monclova, Mexico.   News flash: Rare transit of Venus across the Sun tomorrow
A Planet Transits the Sun (2004-06-08)
Today an astronomical event will occur that no living person has ever seen: Venus will cross directly in front of the Sun.  A Venus crossing, called a transit, last occurred in 1882 and was front-page news around the world. Today's transit will be visible in its entirety throughout Europe and most of Asia and Africa.  The northeastern half of North America will see the Sun rise with the dark dot of Venus already superposed.  Never look directly at the Sun, even when Venus is in front.  Mercury's closer proximity to the Sun cause it to transit every few years.  In fact, the above image mosaic of Mercury crossing the Sun is from two transits ago, in November 1999.   Will anyone living see the next Venus transit? Surely yes since it occurs in 2012.
Venus Transit at Sunrise (2004-06-09)
Did you see the transit? While some watched by webcast, sky gazers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia were able to witness the complete 6 hour journey of Venus' silhouetted disk across the face of the Sun. As seen from North America, the much heralded Venus Transit of 2004 was nearing its final stages at sunrise yesterday in this telescopic image. The view looks across the Atlantic from Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia, USA. In fact, many in eastern North America experienced a dramatic view of a perfect, dark, round Venus against a reddened Sun filtered by banks of low clouds. Ironically, the Sun takes on the appearance of a cloud covered planet itself as Venus marches toward the right through this dreamlike scene.
Venus at the Edge (2004-06-10)
With Venus in transit at the Sun's edge on June 8th, astronomers captured this tantalizing close-up view of the bright solar surface and partially silhouetted disk. Enhanced in the sharp picture, a delicate arc of sunlight refracted through the Venusian atmosphere is also visible outlining the planet's edge against the blackness of space. The arc is part of a luminous ring or atmospheric aureole, first noted and offered as evidence that Venus did posses an atmosphere following observations of the planet's 1761 transit. The image was recorded using the 1-meter Swedish Solar Telescope located on La Palma in the Canary Islands. For the Institute for Solar Physics, Dan Kiselman, Goran Scharmer, Kai Langhans, and Peter Dettori were at the telescope, while Mats Lofdahl produced the final image. Excellent movies of the transit - including one of the emergence of Venus' atmospheric aureole - are available from the Dutch Open Telescope, also observing from La Palma.
Venus and the Chromosphere (2004-06-11)
joying the 2004 Transit of Venus from Stuttgart, Germany, astronomer Stefan Seip recorded this fascinating, detailed image of the Sun. Revealing a network of cells and dark filaments against a bright solar disk with spicules and prominences along the Sun's limb, his telescopic picture was taken through an H-alpha filter. The filter narrowly transmits only the red light from hydrogen atoms and emphasizes the solar chromosphere -- the region of the Sun's atmosphere immediately above its photosphere or normally visible surface. Here, the dark disk of Venus seems to be imitating a giant sunspot that looks perhaps a little too round. But in H-alpha pictures like this one, sunspot regions are usually dominated by bright splotches (called plages) on the solar chromosphere.
NGC 4676: When Mice Collide (2004-06-12)
These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart.  Known as "The Mice" because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other. They will probably collide again and again until they coalesce.  The long tails are created by the relative  difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy.  Because the distances are so large, the cosmic interaction takes place in slow motion -- over hundreds of millions of years.  NGC 4676 lies about 300 million light-years away toward the constellation of Coma Berenices and are likely members of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies.  The above picture was taken with the  Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys which is more sensitive and images a larger field than previous Hubble cameras.  The camera's increased sensitivity has imaged, serendipitously, galaxies far in the distance scattered about the frame.
Volcano and Aurora in Iceland (2004-06-13)
Sometimes both heaven and Earth erupt.  In Iceland in 1991, the volcano Hekla erupted at the same time that auroras were visible overhead.  Hekla, one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, has erupted at least 20 times over the past millennium, sometimes causing great destruction.  The last eruption occurred only two years ago but caused only minor damage.  The green auroral band occurred fortuitously about 100 kilometers above the erupting lava.  Is Earth the Solar System's only planet with both auroras and volcanos?
Unusual Layers on Saturn's Moon Phoebe (2004-06-14)
What caused the unusual light and dark layers on Saturn's moon Phoebe?  The layers were discovered just Friday during the Cassini spacecraft flyby of the small moon.  Such layering is particularly evident on the crater just above the image center, where alternating light and dark material makes this crater appear particularly structured.  Cassini scientists speculate that such layering might result from an impact where a dark surface layer becomes intertwined with a lighter subsurface ice layer.  The above image spans about 80 kilometers and was taken when Cassini was only about 13,000 kilometers from Phoebe.  At the end of June, the Cassini spacecraft will be instructed to fire its thrusters to decelerate into orbit around Saturn.
A Rare Annular Venusian Solar Eclipse (2004-06-15)
An unusual type of solar eclipse occurred last week.  Usually it is the Earth's Moon that eclipses the Sun.  Last week, for the first time in over 100 years, the planet Venus took a turn.  Like a solar eclipse by the Moon, the phase of Venus became a continually thinner crescent as Venus became increasingly better aligned with the Sun.  Eventually the alignment became perfect and the phase of Venus dropped to zero.  The dark spot of Venus crossed our parent star.  The situation could technically be labeled a Venusian annular eclipse with an extraordinarily large ring of fire.  From above the thick cloud tops of Venus, the Earth appeared in its fullest phase, brighter in the Venusian sky than even Mars appeared from Earth last August.  Hours later, as Venus continued in its orbit, a slight crescent phase appeared again.  The next Venusian solar eclipse will occur in 2012.
Elliptical Galaxy M87 (2004-06-16)
cal galaxy M87 is a type of galaxy that looks much different than our own Milky Way Galaxy.  Even for an elliptical galaxy, though, M87 is peculiar.  M87 is much bigger than an average galaxy, appears near the center of a whole cluster of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster, and shows an unusually high number of globular clusters.  These globular clusters are visible as faint spots surrounding the bright center of M87.  In general, elliptical galaxies contain similar numbers of stars as spiral galaxies, but are ellipsoidal in shape (spirals are mostly flat), have no spiral structure, and little gas and dust.  The above image of M87 was taken recently by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on top of the dormant volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii, USA.   News: APOD turns nine years old today!
Comet NEAT and the Beehive Cluster (2004-06-17)
To the unaided eye, they appeared as similar fuzzy patches.  But when a bright comet passed in front of a bright star cluster last month, binoculars and cameras were able to show off their marked differences in dramatic fashion.  Pictured above, the bright comet, C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) shows many details of its coma and tail, while far in the distance the Beehive open cluster, M44, shows many of its stars.  Comet Q4 has now faded to the edge of unaided visibility and can best be found with a sky map and binoculars from the Northern Hemisphere well into June.  Star cluster M44 will remain an impressive star cluster toward the constellation of Cancer indefinitely.
The Trifid Nebula from Hubble (2004-06-18)
Clouds of glowing gas mingle with lanes of dark dust in the Trifid Nebula, a star forming region toward the constellation of Sagittarius.  In the center, the three huge dark dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear on the right, while filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula.  A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow.  The Trifid, also known as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebula known.  The nebula lies about 9000 light years away and part pictured above spans about 10 light years.  The above scientific-color image is the addition of several exposures with the Hubble Space Telescope taken over the past few years.
Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon (2004-06-19)
This asteroid has a moon! The robot spacecraft Galileo destined to explore the Jovian system, encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage to Jupiter. The second asteroid it photographed, Ida, was discovered to have a moon which appears as a small dot to the right of Ida in this image from 1993. The tiny moon, named Dactyl, is about one mile across, while the potato shaped Ida measures about 36 miles long and 14 miles wide. Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever discovered. The names Ida and Dactyl are from Greek mythology. Many other asteroids are now known to have moons.
Solstice Celebration (2004-06-20)
Season's greetings! Today or tomorrow, depending on your time zone, the Sun reaches its northernmost point in planet Earth's sky marking a season change and the first solstice of the year 2004. In celebration, consider this delightfully detailed, brightly colored image of the active Sun. From the EIT instrument onboard the space-based SOHO observatory, the tantalizing picture is a false-color composite of three images all made in extreme ultraviolet light. Each individual image highlights a different temperature regime in the upper solar atmosphere and was assigned a specific color; red at 2 million, green at 1.5 million, and blue at 1 million degrees C. The combined image shows bright active regions strewn across the solar disk, which would otherwise appear as dark groups of sunspots in visible light images, along with some magnificent plasma loops and an immense prominence at the right hand solar limb.