Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

June 16, 1996
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download 
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APOD is One Year Old Today
Credit: Apologies to Vermeer's Astronomer and Geographer

Explanation: The first Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) appeared one year ago today. Pictured above are Robert Nemiroff (left) and Jerry Bonnell (right), engaged in creating the APOD web pages. APOD started over speculative conversations on the ultimate value of the World Wide Web. In our (current) view, the WWW is the closest thing yet to an "Encyclopedia of Humanity," and we think it's important to contribute. We are proud to say that APOD has now annotated most of the famous astronomical pictures of our time and has made them available to the general public in an indexed and searchable archive. During it's first year, APOD's main daily picture page has been served over one million times. But APOD's mission continues. As space science progresses more pictures, fresh insights, and new educative links become available. Therefore, so long as public interest and NASA support continue, APOD will continue. We thank all whose gracious e-mail are continually a source of encouragement.

Tomorrow's picture: The United States at Night


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See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download 
 the highest resolution version available. See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download 
 the highest resolution version available. Top 5 logo See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download 
 the highest resolution version available.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (GMU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA).
NASA Technical Rep.: Sherri Calvo. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC