omnianasa/nasa-apod-metadata huggingface dataset:
A Mars Panorama from the Spirit Rover (2004-01-14)
If you could stand on Mars -- what would you see?  Scrolling right will reveal a full color 360-degree panoramic view from NASA's Spirit Rover that landed on Mars just 10 days ago.  The image is a digital mosaic from the panoramic camera that shows the view in every direction.  Annotated on the image are the directions and distances to various hills along the horizon.  These hills are valuable for orienting Spirit since they are also visible to the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft orbiting high overhead.  Visible in the foreground are several instruments and airbags around Columbia Memorial Station.  Spirit will attempt to roll onto the red planet in the next few days and explore interesting features.
An Orion Deep Field (2004-01-15)
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's most recognizable constellations, the glowing Orion Nebula and the dark Horsehead Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas. They both appear in this stunning composite digital image assembled from over 20 hours of data that includes exposures filtered to record emission from hydrogen atoms. The view reveals extensive nebulosities associated with the giant Orion Molecular Cloud complex, itself hundreds of light-years across. The magnificent emission region, the Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right of the picture. Immediately to its left are a cluster of of prominent bluish reflection nebulae sometimes called the Running Man. The Horsehead nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette notched against the long red glow at the lower left. Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and is seen as the brightest star to the left of the Horsehead. Below Alnitak is the Flame Nebula, with clouds of bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes.  Fainter tendrils of glowing hydrogen gas are easily traced throughout the region in this Orion deep field.
Martian Surface in Perspective (2004-01-16)
Spirit moved across Mars yesterday as the rover successfully maneuvered down off its lander, driving its six wheels onto the floor of Gusev crater. As planned, the robotic geologist will now begin a close-up examination of the rocks and soil around the landing site for clues to the processes that formed them. A perspective projection of Spirit's local martian rocks and soil is shown above, based on 3D color image data recorded when rover was still perched on its landing platform. Dark-colored airbag drag marks stretch across the soil in this view of the surface. For scale, the triangular-faced rock in the upper left corner is about 20 centimeters (8 inches) high. Scientists anticipate that the rover's investigation will yield valuable evidence helping to confirm or refute the possibility that the floor of Gusev crater is an ancient lake bed.
Saturn: Lord of the Rings (2004-01-17)
Born in 1564, Galileo used a telescope to explore the Solar System. In 1610, he became the first to be amazed by Saturn's rings, After nearly 400 years, Saturn's magnificent rings still offer one of the most stunning astronomical sights. Uniquely bright compared to the rings of the other gas giants, Saturn's ring system is around 250,000 kilometers wide but in places only a few tens of meters thick. Modern astronomers believe the rings are perhaps only a hundred million years young. Accumulating dust and dynamically interacting with Saturn's moons, the rings may eventually darken and sag toward the gas giant, losing their lustre over the next few hundred million years. Since Galileo, astronomers have subjected the entrancing rings to intense scrutiny to unlock their secrets. On December 31, 2003, Saturn made its closest approach to Earth for the next 29 years, a mere 1,200,000,000 kilometers. It will remain a tantalizing target for earthbound telescopes in the coming months.
A Close-Up of Martian Soil (2004-01-18)
Make your background the closest image of Mars yet.  The Spirit Rover currently rolling on Mars has taken the highest resolution image to date of another planet.  The above black and white image spans only about 1.5 centimeters across, with details smaller than 1/10 of a millimeter visible.  A microscope attached to the Spirit rover's instrument arm took the image.  Up close, the Martian soil appears to planetary geologists to have clumping properties similar to cocoa powder.  As more images come in and as the Spirit Rover continues to explore Mars, more information about the unusual floor of Gusev Crater are likely to emerge.
STARDUST Flyby of Comet Wild 2 (2004-01-19)
Flying past a comet nucleus is dangerous.  On January 2, the robot spacecraft STARDUST became one of the first to plow through the surrounding cloud of dust and grit to photograph the very heart of a comet.  Pictured above is a short movie of the encounter showing unprecedented surface details of the icy center of Comet Wild 2.  The STARDUST camera pivoted to remain pointed at the nucleus as the spacecraft passed.  Heavily shielded from the onslaught of cometary debris, STARDUST survived the beating in excellent condition.  Surprisingly, although the nucleus appeared to be solid, the the surrounding coma appeared to be highly fragmented into several distinct streams of particles.  Souvenirs captured by the spacecraft will be ejected as the spacecraft passes the Earth in January 2006.
Unexpected Galaxy String in the Early Universe (2004-01-20)
How could such a long string of galaxies form so early in the universe?  Several new measurements of galaxies and clusters in the early universe are reporting structures involving galaxies and clusters that are larger than expected with the new standard "dark-energy" cosmology.  The controversy centers on the inability of a dark-energy dominated universe to create such large structures. Fans of the old standard cosmology -- without weird but pervasive dark energy -- are hoping that these new measurements rule out the newly popular strange universe.  Previously, however, data taken from several independent sources over the past few years has only appeared to bolster the bold new universe paradigm. A compromise is still possible if the new data is not typical or if the comparison computer simulations are not properly biased.   Pictured above is a computer-generated illustration of a universe that shows a string of galaxies of the size measured.  The size of the superimposed box is about 300 million light years on a side.
Adirondack Rock on Mars (2004-01-21)
Is this a great pyramid on Mars?  Actually, the pictured rock dubbed Adirondack has an irregular shape, is only about the size of a football, and has formed by natural processes.  Still, its relatively large size and dust-free surface made it the first destination for the robotic Spirit rover currently roving Mars.  Spirit, itself the size of a golf cart, will now attempt to determine the rock's composition and history by prodding it with its sophisticated mechanical arm.  Spirit's arm, programmed remotely from Earth, has the capability to bend, grind, and photograph the rock in minute detail.  Spirit's twin rover Opportunity is scheduled to land on the other side of Mars this coming weekend.
Columbia Memorial Station (2004-01-22)
After leaving its nest, the Spirit rover turned to capture this spectacular view over the Columbia Memorial Station and the floor of Gusev crater on the 16th sol of its visit to Mars. The sharp picture looks toward the northeast. Over 2 meters wide, the lander platform surrounded by deflated airbags, and the egress ramp used by the rover to complete its journey to the martian surface, are in the foreground. In the background lie Spirit's likely future waypoints and destination - initially toward a ridge on the left bordering an impact crater about 200 meters across and finally toward the hills visible on the horizon at the right. The crater is about 250 meters away while the hills are about 3 kilometers distant. Searching for evidence of ancient watery environments, Spirit's scientific instruments have begun to return data on the composition of the surface in the lander's vicinity, suggesting that iron-bearing volcanic minerals are present.
NGC 4631: The Whale Galaxy (2004-01-23)
NGC 4631 is a big beautiful spiral galaxy seen edge-on only 25 million light-years away towards the small northern constellation Canes Venatici. This galaxy's slightly distorted wedge shape suggests to some a cosmic herring and to others the popular moniker of The Whale Galaxy. Either way, it is similar in size to our own Milky Way. In this gorgeous color image, the Whale's dark interstellar dust clouds, young bright blue star clusters, and purplish star forming regions are easy to spot. A companion galaxy, the small elliptical NGC 4627 appears above the Whale Galaxy. Out of view off the lower left corner of the picture lies another distorted galaxy, the hockey stick-shaped NGC 4656. The distortions and mingling trails of gas and dust detected at other wavelengths suggest that all three galaxies have had close encounters with each other in their past. The Whale Galaxy is also known to have spouted a halo of hot gas glowing in x-rays.
Valles Marineris from Mars Express (2004-01-24)
Looking down from orbit on January 14, ESA's Mars Express spacecraft scanned a 1700 by 65 kilometer swath across Valles Marineris - the Grand Canyon of Mars - with its remarkable High Resolution Stereo Camera. This spectacular picture reconstructs part of the scanned region from the stereo colour image data recording the rugged terrain with a resolution of 12 metres per pixel. Joining Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey, Mars Express has been orbiting the red planet since December 25th, returning scientific data, acting as a communications relay, and even making coordinated atmospheric observations with NASA's Spirit rover on the surface. The Beagle 2 lander was released from Mars Express making a landing attempt also on December 25th, but no signal has been received so far.  Opportunity Mars Landing News
Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232 (2004-01-25)
Galaxies are fascinating not only for what is visible, but for what is invisible.  Grand spiral galaxy NGC 1232,  captured in detail by one of the new Very Large Telescopes, is a good example.  The visible is dominated by millions of bright stars and dark dust, caught up in a gravitational swirl of spiral arms rotating about the center.  Open clusters containing bright blue stars can be seen sprinkled along these spiral arms, while dark lanes of dense interstellar dust  can be seen sprinkled between them.  Less visible, but detectable, are billions of dim normal stars and vast tracts of interstellar gas, together wielding such high mass that they dominate the dynamics of the inner galaxy.  Invisible are even greater amounts of matter in a form we don't yet know - pervasive dark matter needed to explain the motions of the visible in the outer galaxy.  What's out there?  Opportunity Lands on Mars
A Landing at Meridiani Planum (2004-01-26)
After an interplanetary journey of nearly 300 million miles, Opportunity bounced down on the martian surface at about 9:05 pm PST Saturday, its final plunge cushioned by airbags. Now the second NASA rover on Mars, Opportunity's landing site at Meridiani Planum is on the opposite side of the red planet from its twin rover Spirit. Described as unlike any ever seen on Mars, the dark, undulating terrain at Meridiani Planum (aka Terra Meridiani) is pictured above in the first stunning color view from Opportunity. This area is thought to be rich in gray hematite, an iron-bearing mineral which can form in watery environments. Part of the rover's deck is in the foreground while circular impressions and drag marks made by the airbags are visible just beyond it.
Opportunity on Mars (2004-01-27)
You've just woken up in a small crater on Mars.  The surrounding landscape is barren, strange, and alien.  You've never been on this world before.  You transmit pictures that are instantly rebroadcast all over your home world.  You are the eyes for billions of people.  You seek adventure.  Your mission is to explore this strange new world and search for signs of pre-historic life.  You have six wheels, one arm, and X-ray eyes. Surrounding you, pictured above, is iron sand and light-colored protrusions that might be bedrock.  You are the Opportunity Rover that landed on Mars just this past weekend.
The Crab Nebula from CFHT (2004-01-28)
This is the mess that is left when a star explodes.  The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments.  The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion.  The above image, taken by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), is in three colors chosen for scientific interest.  The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light-years.  In the nebula's very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town.  The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second.
Valles Marineris Perspective from Mars Express (2004-01-29)
urope's Mars Express satellite has started returning detailed color images of the red planet.  The first of the current armada to arrive at Mars, the orbiting satellite will photograph the entire Martian surface to a resolution of 10 meters or higher, map the mineral composition to 100 meter resolution, and investigate the global circulation of the atmosphere.  Pictured above is a 3D perspective of the first image released from this satellite -- a stunning computer reconstruction of part of the Valles Marineris region, a canyon nicknamed the Grand Canyon of Mars.  In reality, Valles Marineris is four times longer and five times deeper than its Arizona counterpart.  The above image shows a portion of Valles Marineris roughly 65 kilometers across, detailing many ridges and valleys.  Mars Express is scheduled to continue to send back images for at least a full Martian year.
X-Ray Rings Expand from a Gamma Ray Burst (2004-01-30)
Why do x-ray rings appear to emanate from a gamma-ray burst?  The surprising answer has little to do with the explosion itself but rather with light reflected off sheets of dust-laden gas in our own Milky Way Galaxy.  GRB 031203 was a tremendous explosion -- a gamma-ray burst that occurred far across the universe with radiation just arriving in our Solar System last December 3.  Since GRBs can also emit copious amounts of x-rays, a bright flash of x-rays likely arrived simultaneously with the gamma-radiation. In this case, the x-rays also bounced off two slabs of cosmic dust nearly 3500 light-years distant and created the unusual reflections.  The longer path from the GRB, to the dust slab, to the XMM-Newton telescope caused the x-ray light echoes to arrive well after the GRB.
A Galaxy is not a Comet (2004-01-31)
This gorgeous galaxy and comet portrait was recorded on April 5th, 2002, in the skies over the Oriental Pyrenees near Figueres, Spain. From a site above 1,100 meters, astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado used a guided time exposure, fast film, and a telephoto lens to capture the predicted conjunction of the bright Comet Ikeya-Zhang (right) and the Andromeda Galaxy (left). This stunning celestial scene would also have been a rewarding one for the influential 18th century comet hunter Charles Messier. While Messier scanned French skies for comets, he carefully cataloged positions of things which were fuzzy and comet-like in appearance but did not move against the background stars and so were definitely not comets. The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, is the 31st object in his famous not-a-comet catalog. Not-a-comet object number 110, a late addition to Messier's catalog, is one of Andromeda's small satellite galaxies, and can be seen here just below M31. Our modern understanding holds that the Andromeda galaxy is a large spiral galaxy some 2 million light-years distant. The photogenic Comet Ikeya-Zhang, then a lovely sight in early morning skies was about 80 million kilometers (4 light-minutes) from planet Earth.
M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula (2004-02-01)
Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die?  Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die.  In the case of low-mass stars like our Sun and  M2-9 pictured above, the stars transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes.  The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousand of years.  M2-9, a butterfly planetary nebula 2100 light-years away shown in representative colors, has wings that tell a strange but incomplete tale.  In the center, two stars orbit inside a gaseous disk 10 times the orbit of Pluto.  The expelled envelope of the dying star breaks out from the disk creating the bipolar appearance.  Much remains unknown about the physical processes that cause planetary nebulae.
The Tarantula Nebula from Spitzer (2004-02-02)
In the heart of monstrous Tarantula Nebula lies one of the most unusual star clusters.  Known as NGC 2070 or R136, it is home to a great number of hot young stars.  The energetic light from these stars continually ionizes nebula gas, while their energetic particle wind blows bubbles and defines intricate filaments.  The new Spitzer Space Telescope took the above representative-color infrared image of this great LMC cluster. The image details the cluster's tumultuous center in gas, dust and young stars.  The 30 Doradus nebula is one of the largest star-formation regions known, and has been creating unusually strong episodes of star formation every few million years.  In the heart of this heart is a central knot of stars that is so dense it was once thought to be a single star.
X-Rays From Antennae Galaxies (2004-02-03)
A bevy of black holes and neutron stars shine as bright, point-like sources against bubbles of million degree gas in this false-color x-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory. The striking picture spans about 80 thousand light-years across the central regions of two galaxies, NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, locked in a titanic collision some 60 million light-years away in the constellation Corvus. In visible light images, long, luminous, tendril-like structures emanating from the wreckage lend the pair their popular moniker, the Antennae Galaxies. Galactic collisions are now thought to be fairly common, but when they happen individual stars rarely collide. Instead gas and dust clouds merge and compress, triggering furious bursts of massive star formation with thousands of resulting supernovae. The exploding stars litter the scene with bubbles of shocked gas enriched in heavy elements, and collapsed stellar cores. Transfixed by this cosmic accident astronomers watch and are beginning to appreciate the collision-driven evolution of galaxies, not unlike our own.
Opportunity's Horizon (2004-02-04)
Remarkably, the Opportunity Mars rover lies in a small martian impact crater about 3 meters deep and 22 meters wide. For 360 degrees, Opportunity's horizon stretches to the right in this new color mosaic image from the rover's panoramic camera. Notable in this view of the generally dark, smooth terrain are surface imprints left by the lander's airbags and an outcropping of light-colored, layered rock about 8 meters away toward the northwest. Though they look imposing, the rocks in the tantalizing outcrop are only a few centimeters high and will be dwarfed by the cart-sized rover itself during future close-up investigations. Opportunity has now rolled off its lander and, along with the restored Spirit rover, is directly exploring the martian surface.
NGC 1569: Starburst in a Small Galaxy (2004-02-05)
Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In fact, as pictured here, dwarf galaxy NGC 1569 is apparently undergoing a burst of star forming activity, thought to have begun over 25 million years ago. The resulting turbulent environment is fed by supernova explosions as the cosmic detonations spew out material and trigger further star formation. Two massive star clusters - youthful counterparts to globular star clusters in our own spiral Milky Way galaxy - are seen left of center in the gorgeous Hubble Space Telescope image. The picture spans about 1,500 light-years across NGC 1569. A mere 7 million light-years distant, this relatively close starburst galaxy offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to study stellar populations in rapidly evolving galaxies. NGC 1569 lies in the long-necked constellation Camelopardalis.
Magnified Mars (2004-02-06)
At first glance, this sharp, color close-up gives the strong impression of pebbles strewn over a sandy beach. But the picture is one of the first microscopic images of another planet, captured by the Opportunity rover on its tenth sol on the martian surface at Meridiani Planum. The patch of soil measures about 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) across. It is shown in shades approximating what the eye might see, obtained by combining pictures of the soil with and without the microscopic imager's orange-tinted dust cover in place. Searching for evidence of past water on Mars, researchers note that both volcanic and water-related accretion processes could have produced the striking circular grain at the lower left. However, other investigations now indicate the soil near the lander contains olivine, an iron-bearing mineral common in volcanic rocks, while a signature of the iron mineral hematite was found in soil around a nearby rocky outcrop. On planet Earth, hematite often forms in association with liquid water.
NGC 6369: The Little Ghost Nebula (2004-02-07)
This pretty planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 6369, was discovered by 18th century astronomer William Herschel as he used a telescope to explore the medicinal constellation Ophiucus. Round and planet-shaped, the nebula is also relatively faint and has acquired the popular moniker of Little Ghost Nebula. Planetary nebulae in general are not at all related to planets, but instead are created at the end of a sun-like star's life as its outer layers expand into space while the star's core shrinks to become a white dwarf. The transformed white dwarf star, seen near the center, radiates strongly at ultraviolet wavelengths and powers the expanding nebula's glow. Surprisingly complex details and structures of NGC 6369 are revealed in this delightful color image composed from Hubble Space Telescope data. The nebula's main ring structure is about a light-year across and the glow from ionized oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms are colored blue, green, and red respectively. Over 2,000 light-years away, the Little Ghost Nebula offers a glimpse of the fate of our Sun, which should produce its own pretty planetary nebula only about 5 billion years from now.
In the Center of the Omega Nebula (2004-02-08)
In the depths of the dark clouds of dust and molecular gas known as the Omega Nebula, stars continue to form.  The above image from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys shows exquisite detail in the famous star-forming region.  The dark dust filaments that lace the center of Omega Nebula were created in the atmospheres of cool giant stars and in the debris from supernova explosions.  The red and blue hues arise from glowing gas heated by the radiation of massive nearby stars.  The points of light are the young stars themselves, some brighter than 100 Suns.  Dark globules mark even younger systems, clouds of gas and dust just now condensing to form stars and planets.  The Omega Nebula lies about 5000 light years away toward the constellation of Sagittarius.  The region shown spans about 3000 times the diameter of our Solar System.