Astronomy Pictures of the Year: 2003:

News and Views for your Classroom

Robert J. Nemiroff

Top Five NASA Imagesof all Time*

*Yes, it’s subjective!

STS-1: First Shuttle Launch

Apollo 17 Lunarscape: A Magnificent Desolation

A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence

M16: Stars from Eagle's EGGs

Earth Rise

Top Five APOD Imagesof all Time*

Earth at Night

M31: The Andromeda Galaxy

Looking Back on an Eclipsed Earth

The Big Corona

Inside the Eagle Nebula

Image Credits

• Top NASA: All NASA (no joke!)

• Top APOD: – Earth at Night: DMSP Satellites– M31: © Robert Gendler– Eclipsed Earth: © CNES– Big Corona: © Fred Espenak, NASA– Eagle Nebula: © AURA, NOAO, NSF

Astronomy Pictures of the Year: 2003:

News and Views for your Classroom

Robert J. Nemiroff

Why great new astronomy images are particularly useful in the classroom

• Great new astronomy images are – a hook to interest potential students in science

and/or Astro 101• Astronomy leads all sciences in cool images

– incite the curiosity of current students• Show a great synergy between beauty and discovery

– show how scientific knowledge evolves– can give overview of topics not covered in class

Sources for Great New Astronomy Images on the Web

• News pages of major telescopes

– Example: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/

• Image galleries of major telescopes

– Example: http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/

– Example: http://heritage.stsci.edu/

• space.com

• Sky & Telescope: http://skyandtelescope.com/news/

• Astronomy Magazine: http://astronomy.com/home.asp

• CNN Space: http://cnn.com/TECH/space/

• APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/

How the images were chosen

• By APOD Editors from the 2003 APODs – RJN nearly awake, almost coherent– Yes, it’s VERY subjective

• Most likely to be included in a future astronomy textbook

• Most likely to interest students in Astro 101

• Images from this meeting most likely too new

What is APOD? Astronomy Picture of the Day

• Web site started at NASA in 1995• Written & edited w/ Jerry Bonnell (USRA/NASA)• Features a different astronomy image every day • Mirror sites now translate APOD into most major

languages daily• Hypertext is “best link”, leverages the full web• Archive is encyclopedic and searchable

– Need an astronomy image? Good chance APOD’s got it!

NOT in the Top 10

(But appeared on APOD in 2003 anyway)

A New Constellation Takes Hold

A Chicago Meteorite Fall

Egging On the Autumnal Equinox

Cool Amateur Pictures

(But still not in the top 10)

An Antarctic Total Solar Eclipse

Mars Rising Behind Elephant Rock

(One of Time Magazines Pictures of the Year 2003)

Comet NEAT Approaches the Sun

Sunrise Analemma

A Mercury Transit Sequence

Really Cool(But still not in the top 10)

The Long Shadow of the Moon

Will the Universe End in a Big Rip?

Big Mars from Hubble

Space Rock SQ222 Noticed After Pass

The Sagittarius Dwarf Tidal Stream

Canis Major Dwarf: A New Closest Galaxy

The Sun's Surface in 3D

Composite Crab

X-Rays from the Galactic Core

Light Can Twist as Well as Spin

Top 10 Astronomy

Pictures of the Year 2003*

The Andromeda Galaxy from GALEX

Inside the Elephant's Trunk (from the Spitzer Space Telescope)

The 2MASS Galaxy Sky

Zooming in on the First Stars

KamLAND Verifies the Sun

Abell 1689 Warps Space

The Andromeda Deep Field

Large Sunspot Groups 10484 and 10486

V838 Light Echo: The Movie

WMAP Resolves the Universe

2003 was another great year for astronomy!

Image Credits and CopyrightsNot in the Top 10• A New Constellation Takes Hold

– Hugo E. Schwarz (CTIO), NOAO

• A Chicago Meteorite Fall– Ivan and Colby Navarro

• Egging on the Autumnal Equinox– Phil Plait aka “The Bad Astronomer”

Cool Amateur Pictures• An Antarctic Total Solar Eclipse

– Fred Bruenjes

• Mars Rising Behind Elephant Rock– Wally Pacholka

• Sunrise Analemma– Anthony Ayiomamitis

• A Mercury Transit Sequence– Dominique Dierick

Really Cool• The Long Shadow of the Moon

– J. Descloitres, MOTIS, NASA

• Will the Universe End in a Big Rip?– Illustration: Lynette Cook

• Big Mars from Hubble– J. Bell (Cornell) et al., STScI, NASA

• Space Rock SQ222 Notices After Pass– LONEOS Team, Lowell Observatory

• The Sagittarius Dwarf Tital Stream– Drawing: D. Martinez-Delgado (MPIA) etal.

• Canis Major: A New Closest Galaxy– R. Ibata (Strasbourg) et al. 2MASS, NASA

• The Sun’s Surface in 3D– G. Scharmer (ISP, RSAS), Lockheed-Martin

• Composite Crab– J. Hester (ASU) et al., Chandra, HST, NASA

• X-rays from the Galactic Core– F. Baganoff (MIT) et al., Chandra, NASA

• Light Can Twist as Well as Spin– M. J. Padgett et al. (Glasgow), Royal Society

Image Credits and CopyrightsTop 10

• The Andromeda Galaxy from GALEX– GALEX Team, Caltech, NASA

• Inside the Elephant's Trunk– Spitzer Space Telescope Team, W. Reach (Caltech), JPL, Caltech, NASA

• The 2MASS Galaxy Sky– T. H. Jarrett et al., 2MASS

• Zooming in on the First Stars– Visualization: Ralf Kaehler (ZIB) & Tom Abel (Penn. State); – Simulation: Tom Abel (Penn. State), Greg Bryan (Oxford) & Mike Norman (UCSD)

• KamLAND Verifies the Sun– KamLAND Collaboration

• Abell 1689 Warps Space– N. Benitez (JHU), et al., ACS Science Team, HST, NASA

• The Andromeda Deep Field

– T. M. Brown (STScI) et al., ESA, NASA

• Large Sunspot Groups 10484 and 10486

– Juan Carlos Casado

• WMAP Resolves the Universe– WMAP Science Team, NASA

Postscripts

• The Astronomy Picture of the Day website is available online at http://apod.nasa.gov/