omnianasa/nasa-apod-metadata huggingface dataset:
Beefing Up the International Space Station (2002-12-17)
The International Space Station (ISS) will be the largest human-made object ever to orbit the Earth.  The station is so large that it could not be launched all at once -- it is being built piecemeal with large sections added continually by flights of the Space Shuttle.  To function, the ISS needs trusses to keep it rigid and to route electricity and liquid coolants.  These trusses are huge, extending over 15 meters long, and with masses over 10,000 kilograms.  Pictured above at the end of last month, astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria works to install the Port-One Truss.  On the right is the end of Canadarm2, the robotic remote control arm of the ISS.
Io Volcano Culann Patera (2002-12-18)
What causes the unusual colors surrounding Io's volcanoes?  Io, the innermost large moon of Jupiter, is known to be the most tumultuous body in the Solar System.  Approximately the size of Earth's Moon, Io undergoes nearly continuous volcanic eruptions from an interior heated by gravitational tides from Jupiter and Jupiter's other large moons.  The robot spacecraft Galileo currently orbiting Jupiter has been monitoring the active volcano Culann Patera over the past few years.  The above images indicate that the volcano has produced not only red and black colored lava flows, but yellow sulfur patches from explosive plumes.  Green colors may arise when these processes affect the same terrain.  White patches may be caused, in part, by sulfur dioxide snow.  As Galileo has fulfilled its mission objectives and is running low on maneuvering fuel, NASA plans to crash the spacecraft into Jupiter during 2003.
RAPTOR Images GRB 021211 (2002-12-19)
On December 11 astronomers found one of the brightest and most distant explosions in the Universe - a gamma-ray burst - hiding in the glare of a relatively nearby star. The earliest image of the burst's visible light was caught by an earthbound RAPTOR (RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response). The two exposures inset above were taken by a RAPTOR unit about 65 seconds (left) and 9 minutes (top right) after high-energy radiation from the burst, dutifully cataloged as GRB 021211, was identified by the orbiting HETE-2 satellite. One of only two optical transients (OTs) ever found at times so close to a burst's gamma-ray emission, the fading visible light source is indicated by arrows, blended with the image of foreground stars toward the constellation Canis Minor.  The RAPTOR unit (lower inset) is designed with peripheral low resolution cameras and a central, sensitive high resolution imager, in analogy with a predator's vision. In the future, the RAPTOR project expects its innovative instruments to be able to independently discover and catalog a host of cosmic things that go bump in the night.
Colorful Clouds of Orion (2002-12-20)
Revisiting one of the most famous nebulae in planet Earth's night sky, astrophotographer Robert Gendler has constructed this stunning, color-enhanced mosaic of the region surrounding the Great Nebula in Orion. As seen here, the clouds of Orion are dominated by the reddish emission nebula M42 near the bottom of the image, with blue reflection nebulae, including NGC 1977, near the top. Strewn with dust lanes and dark nebulae, the striking cosmic apparitions surrounding Orion's stellar nurseries are about 1,500 light-years away and are themselves several light-years across. Located at the edge of a giant molecular cloud complex spanning hundreds of light-years, these nebulae represent only a small, but very visible(!), fraction of this region's wealth of interstellar material. Within these colorful clouds of Orion, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant solar systems.
Solstice Celebration (2002-12-21)
Aloha and Season's greetings! On December 22nd, at 01:14 Universal Time (December 21, 3:14pm Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time), the Sun reaches its southernmost point in planet Earth's sky marking the final season change for the year 2002. 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 righthand solar limb.
Summer at the South Pole (2002-12-22)
The December solstice brings the beginning of Winter to Earth's Northern Hemisphere and Summer time to the South! This view of Earth's Southern Hemisphere near the beginning of Summer was created using images from the Galileo spacecraft taken during its  December 1990 flyby of our fair planet. Dramatically centered on the South Pole, this mosaic was constructed by piecing together images made over a 24 hour period so that the entire hemisphere appears to be in sunlight. South America (middle left), Africa (upper right), and Australia (lower right), are visible as dark masses while Antarctica gleams brightly in the center. Swirling clouds marking regularly spaced major weather systems are also prominent.
Stars and Dust Through Baade's Window (2002-12-23)
Billions of stars light up the direction toward the center of our Galaxy.  The vast majority of these stars are themselves billions of years old, rivaling their home Milky Way Galaxy in raw age.  These stars are much more faint and red than the occasional young blue stars that light up most galaxies.  Together with interstellar dust, these old stars make a yellowish starscape, as pictured above.  Although the opaque dust obscures the true Galactic center in visible light, a relative hole in the dust occurs on the right of the image.  This region, named Baade's Window for an astronomer who studied it, is used to inspect distant stars and to determine the internal geometry of the Milky Way.  Baade's Window occurs toward the constellation of Sagittarius.
Spring Dust Storms at the North Pole of Mars (2002-12-24)
Spring reached the north pole of Mars in May, and brought with it the usual dust storms.  As the north polar cap begins to thaw, a temperature difference occurs between the cold frost region and recently thawed surface, resulting in swirling winds between the adjacent regions.  In the above image mosaic from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft currently orbiting Mars, the white material is frozen carbon dioxide that covers much of the extreme north.  The choppy clouds of at least three dust storms can be identified.
Orion Rising (2002-12-25)
Orion always comes up sideways ... and was caught in the act earlier this month by astronomer Jimmy Westlake, stargazing eastward over the Rocky Mountains north of Leadville, Colorado, USA. To make this gorgeous image, Westlake placed his camera on a tripod for two exposures. The first lasted for 18 minutes allowing the stars to trail as they rose above the mountain range. After a minute long pause, the second exposure began and lasted only 25 seconds decorating the end of each trail with a celestial point of light.  The three bright stars in Orion's belt stand in a nearly vertical line above the mountain peak right of center. Hanging from his belt, the stars and nebulae of the Hunter's sword follow the slope down and to the right. A festive yellow-orange Betelgeuse is the brightest star above the peak just left of center, but brighter still, planet Saturn shines near the upper left corner. In the foreground on planet Earth, a frozen lake and snowy mountains are lit by a four day old crescent Moon. Happy Holidays and Best Wishes from APOD!
Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica (2002-12-26)
Where is the best place on Earth to find meteorites?  Although meteors fall all over the world, they usually just sink to the bottom of an ocean, are buried by shifting terrain, or are easily confused with terrestrial rocks.  At the bottom of the Earth, however, in East Antarctica, huge sheets of blue ice remain pure and barren.  When traversing such a sheet, a dark rock will stick out.  These rocks have a high probability of being true meteorites -- likely pieces of another world.  An explosion or impact might have catapulted these meteorites from the Moon, Mars, or even an asteroid, yielding valuable information about these distant worlds and our early Solar System.  Small teams of snowmobiling explorers so far have found thousands.  Pictured above, ice-trekkers search a field 25-kilometers in front of Otway Massif in the Transantarctic Mountain Range during the Antarctic summer of 1995-1996.
X-Ray Mystery in RCW 38 (2002-12-27)
A mere 6,000 light-years distant and sailing through the constellation Vela, star cluster RCW 38 is full of powerful stars. It's no surprise that these stars, only a million years young with hot outer atmospheres, appear as point-like x-ray sources dotting this x-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory.  But the diffuse cloud of x-rays surrounding them is a bit mysterious. The image is color coded by x-ray energy, with high energies in blue, medium in green, and low energy x-rays in red. Just a few light-years across, the cloud which pervades the cluster has colors suggesting the x-rays are produced by high energy electrons moving through magnetic fields. Yet a source of energetic electrons, such as shockwaves from exploding stars (supernova remnants), or rotating neutron stars (pulsars), is not apparent in the Chandra data. Whatever their origins, the energetic particles could leave an imprint on planetary systems forming in young star cluster RCW 38, just as nearby energetic events seem to have affected the chemistry and isotopes found in our own solar system.
Mir Dreams (2002-12-28)
This dream-like image of Mir was recorded by astronauts as the Space Shuttle Atlantis approached the Russian space station prior to docking during the STS-76 mission. Sporting spindly appendages and solar panels, Mir resembles a whimsical flying insect hovering about 350 kilometers above New Zealand's South Island and the city of Nelson near Cook Strait. In late March 1996, Atlantis shuttled astronaut Shannon W. Lucid to Mir for a five month visit, increasing Mir's occupancy from 2 to 3. It returned to pick Lucid up and drop off astronaut John Blaha during the STS-79 mission in August of that year. Since becoming operational in 1986, Mir has been visited by over 100 spacefarers from the nations of planet Earth including, Russia, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Austria, Kazakhstan and Slovakia.  After joint Shuttle-Mir training missions in support of the International Space Station, continuous occupation of Mir ended in August 1999. The Mir was deorbited in March 2001.
NGC 1818: A Young Globular Cluster (2002-12-29)
Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way.  Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy.  Today, there are perhaps 200 left.  Many globular clusters were destroyed over the eons by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the Galactic center.  Surviving relics are older than any Earth fossil, older than any other structures in our Galaxy, and limit the universe itself in raw age.  There are few, if any, young globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy because conditions are not ripe for more to form.  Things are different next door, however, in the neighboring LMC galaxy. Pictured above is a "young" globular cluster residing there: NGC 1818.  Observations show it formed only about 40 million years ago - just yesterday compared to the 12 billion year ages of globular clusters in our own Milky Way
A Sun Pillar (2002-12-30)
Have you ever seen a sun pillar?  When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting, falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light.  Ice sometimes forms flat, stop-sign shaped crystals as it falls from high-level clouds.  Air resistance causes these crystals to lie nearly flat much of the time as they flutter to the ground.  Sunlight reflects off crystals that are properly aligned, creating the sun-pillar effect.  In the above picture, a sun-pillar reflects light from a setting Sun.
A Year of Assessing Astronomical Hazards (2002-12-31)
Could an asteroid destroy civilization on Earth?  Mountain-sized space rocks could potentially impact the Earth causing global effects, and perhaps even be mistaken for a nuclear blast of terrestrial origin. Such large impacts are rare but have happened before.  Modern telescopes have therefore begun to scan the skies for signs of approaching celestial hazards.  Over the past year, projects such as Spacewatch and Spaceguard have continually discovered previously unknown asteroids that indeed pass near the Earth.  Such projects are still rather modest, however.  In June, 100-meter asteroid 2002 MN was discovered only after it whizzed by the Earth, crossing even within the orbit of the Moon.  This year brought much discussion in the astronomical community of expanding technology to discover most large Near Earth Objects and extend the time between discovery and impact for all potential astronomical hazards.  Pictured above is an illustration of a busy planetary system, showing the view of a planet ringed with space debris from a recently formed crater of an orbiting moon.
Structure in N63A (2004-01-01)
Shells and arcs abound in this false-color, multiwavelength view of supernova remnant N63A, the debris of a massive stellar explosion. The x-ray emission (blue), is from gas heated to 10 million degrees C as knots of fast moving material from the cosmic blast sweep up surrounding interstellar matter. Radio (red) and optical emission (green) are brighter near the central regions where the x-rays seem to be absorbed by denser, cooler material on the side of the expanding debris cloud facing the Earth. Located in the neighboring galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, the apparent age of this supernova remnant is between 2,000 and 5,000 years, its extended glow spanning about 60 light-years. The intriguing image is a composite of x-ray data from the orbiting Chandra Observatory, optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope, and radio from the Australia Telescope Compact Array.
An Apollo 12 Panorama (2004-01-02)
The Apollo 12 mission was the second ever to land humans on the Moon.  The mission was dedicated to studying the Moon, developing techniques, and developing instruments that could be used in future lunar landings.  Astronauts Charles (Pete) Conrad and Alan Bean spent just under two days on the lunar surface in November 1969, while Richard Gordon orbited above in the Command Module.  Pictured above in this digitally stitched panorama, Alan Bean works near the Lunar Module.  Scrolling to the right will reveal a dark color panorama where flat lunar terrain and a tall video camera are visible.  Apollo 12 mission astronauts visited the site of the nearby Surveyor 3 robot spacecraft that had landed on the moon three years earlier.
Comet Wild 2's Nucleus from Stardust (2004-01-03)
What does a comet nucleus look like?  Yesterday the robot spacecraft Stardust answered this question by returning the most detailed images yet of the center of a comet.  The icy centers of comets are usually hidden from Earth-bound telescopes by opaque dust and gas that boils off during approach to the Sun.  Twice before, however, in the cases of Comet Halley and Comet Borrelly, spacecraft dove through the debris cloud of a comet's coma to image the nucleus.  Pictured above is the nucleus of Comet Wild 2 taken by Stardust when passing within 500 kilometers.  Clearly visible are numerous craters and hilly terrain. The Stardust mission is yet more ambitious -- it has captured particles from the coma and will jettison them to Earth in 2006.  Analyses of the images and returned particles will likely give fresh information about our Solar System back near its beginning, when Comet Wild 2 formed.
Spirit Rover Bounces Down on Mars (2004-01-04)
After a seven month voyage through interplanetary space, NASA's Spirit Rover has reached the surface of the Red Planet and returned the first images from its landing site in Gusev crater! The entry, descent, and landing phase of its mission - referred to by mission planners as "Six Minutes of Terror" - began Saturday night around 8:30pm PST as Spirit entered the martian atmosphere at about 12,000 miles per hour. Depicted in the above artist's illustration, the spacecraft is in the final stages of its landing sequence, swaddled in large, protective airbags and bouncing to a soft landing on Mars. The same type of airbags were used for the Mars Pathfinder landing in 1997.  Updates on Spirit's status will be posted throughout the day.
Spirit Pan from Gusev Crater (2004-01-05)
After a seven month voyage of nearly 500 million kilometers through interplanetary space, NASA's Spirit Rover has reached the surface of Mars. Scroll right and see a mosaic panorama of Spirit's first images returned from its landing site in Gusev Crater! Taken by Spirit's navigation camera, the panorama covers 360 degrees, with the spacecraft in the foreground and the floor of Gusev Crater, thought to be an ancient lake bed, extending to the horizon. The entry, descent, and landing phase of Spirit's mission - referred to by mission planners as "Six Minutes of Terror" - began Saturday night around 8:30pm PST as Spirit entered the martian atmosphere at about 20,000 kilometers per hour.  Updates on Spirit's status will be posted throughout the day.
Spirit's 3D View Toward Sleepy Hollow (2004-01-06)
Working late, tired mission members nicknamed the smooth-looking depression to the left of center in this image from the martian surface, Sleepy Hollow. The picture is a portion of the 3D panorama of the Spirit rover's landing site released yesterday, constructed with data from the Mars rover's navigation cameras. Use red/blue glasses, red for the left eye, to get the 3D effect. Sleepy Hollow is estimated to be around 9 meters (30 feet) in diameter and about 12 meters (40 feet) away. Possibly an impact crater, the martian surface feature is a tantalizing potential site for a future visit when the golf cart-sized robotic rover ventures forth. Covered with solar arrays, the rear deck of the rover is also visible in this view along with the top of an antenna at the right. An innovative camera calibration target, a martian sundial, can be seen left of the antenna, mounted near the edge of the rover's deck.
Red Mars from Spirit (2004-01-07)
Rocks are strewn across the broad, flat Gusev crater floor in this sharp color picture from NASA's Spirit rover. Recorded by the rover's panoramic camera, the picture is part of Spirit's first color image of Mars - the highest resolution picture yet taken on the surface of another planet. Already revealing alluring and perplexing details of an apparently windswept plain thought to be an ancient lake bed, this stunning view represents only a small fraction of the color image data mission scientists expect to be transmitted in the coming days. As the robotic Spirit rover is preparing to stand up, roll off the lander, and explore the geology of the crater floor, NASA has announced plans to rename the landing site the Columbia Memorial Station in honor of the astronauts lost in the Columbia space shuttle accident.
The Hills of Mars (2004-01-08)
Distant hills rise above a rocky, windswept plain in this sharp stereo scene from the Spirit rover on Mars. When viewed with red/blue glasses, the picture combines left and right images from Spirit's high resolution panoramic camera to yield a dramatic 3D perspective. The hills were estimated to lie about 2 kilometers away and be approximately 50 to 100 meters high. Along with other features of the landscape, determining their direction and distance will help pinpoint the exact location of the Spirit landing site when compared with high resolution images of the region taken from Mars orbit. Much stereo image data, allowing important estimates of three dimensional shapes, sizes, and distances, is anticipated from the rover's cameras. (Editor's note: Red/blue glasses for viewing stereo pictures can be purchased or simply constructed using red and blue plastic for filters. Try it! To view this image, the red filter is used for the left eye.)
Sol 5 Postcard from Mars (2004-01-09)
A martian Sol - the average martian solar day - is about 39 minutes longer than Earth's familiar 24 hour day. Operating on martian time, the Spirit rover recently sent back this color postcard image, recorded on Sol 5 of its stay on the martian surface. This cropped version of the full, high-resolution mosaic looks north across Gusev crater floor. The smooth-looking, 9 meter wide circular feature dubbed Sleepy Hollow lies at the center of the scene. Within it are round dark markings which may have been left by the lander swaddled in airbags as it bounced across the martian surface. Other examples of disturbances, likely made by the lander's retracting airbags, can be seen in the foreground just beyond Spirit's solar cell covered deck.
Two Worlds, One Sun (2004-01-10)
Two Worlds, One Sun, is the legend emblazoned on the Spirit rover's camera calibration target. Resting on the rover's rear deck, it also doubles as a sundial, allowing students to determine the solar time at Spirit's landing site on Mars. Examples of the sundial or Marsdial are shown above where the left image, captured near local noon, shows the effect of the Sun high in the martian sky. The right image from later in the afternoon with the Sun lower in the sky, shows a long shadow cast by the Marsdial's 3.5 centimeter high central post. Based on the computer generated grid overlay, students determined the local time in the central inset image to be about 12:17 pm local solar time. The face of the Marsdial was designed by astronomy artist Jon Lomberg in collaboration with other team members. Did you know, the Marsdial idea was a brainchild of Bill Nye, the Science Guy? Now you know ...
NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf (2004-01-11)
Like a butterfly, a white dwarf star begins its life by casting off a cocoon that enclosed its former self.  In this analogy, however, the Sun would be a caterpillar and the ejected shell of gas would become the prettiest of all! The above cocoon, the planetary nebula designated NGC 2440,  contains one of the hottest white dwarf stars known. The white dwarf can be seen as the bright dot near the photo's center.  Our Sun will eventually become a "white dwarf butterfly", but not for another 5 billion years.  The above false color image was post-processed by Forrest Hamilton.
A Hole Punch Cloud Over Alabama (2004-01-12)
Tomorrow's picture: Pan the Moon  < | Archive | Index | Search | Calendar | Glossary | Education | About APOD | >  Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.
An Apollo 15 Panorama (2004-01-13)
The Apollo 15 mission to Earth's Moon was dedicated to better understanding the surface of the moon by exploring mountains, valleys, maria, and highlands. Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin spent nearly three days on the Moon while Alfred Worden orbited above in the Command Module.  The mission, which blasted off from Earth on 1971 July 26, was the first to deploy a Lunar Roving Vehicle.  Pictured above in this digitally stitched mosaic panorama, David Scott examines a boulder in front of the summit of Mt. Hadley Delta.  The shadow of James Irwin is visible to the right, while scrolling to the right will reveal a well-lit and diverse lunar terrain.  The Apollo 15 mission returned about 76 kilograms of moon rocks for detailed study.  Want to pan across the surface of Mars, too? Check out the color panoramic view from the Spirit landing site.