APOD_365

[
	{
		"date": "2000-02-03",
		"explanation": "Tumultuous clouds of the Carina Nebula, 8000 light-years away, glow in planet Earth's southern sky. Striking and detailed, this close-up of a portion of the famous nebula is a combination of exposures through six different filters taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in April of 1999. Dramatic dark dust knots and complex features revealed are sculpted by the winds and radiation of Carina's massive and energetic stars. But how were this picture's colors generated? Astronomical images produced from Hubble Space Telescope data can be composed of exposures made using relatively narrow filters which don't match the color responses of the human eye. Some of the filters even transmit wavelengths of light outside the visible spectrum. Exposures made with different narrow filters, as in this case, are translated to a visible color where shorter wavelengths are assigned bluer and longer wavelengths assigned redder colors. This color scheme represents a \"chromatically ordered\" way of presenting the data rather than a natural color image.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0002/carina_herhst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Colorful Clouds Of Carina",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0002/carina_herhst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Yuichi Takasaka",
		"date": "2010-03-11",
		"explanation": "Fixed to a tripod, a camera can record graceful trails traced by stars as planet Earth rotates on its axis. But at high latitudes during March and April, it can also capture an aurora shimmering in the night. In fact, the weeks surrounding the equinox, in both spring and fall, offer a favorable season for aurora hunters. The possibilities are demonstrated in this beautiful moonlit vista from northwestern Canadian territory the Yukon. It was taken during the early morning of March 1, off the Klondike Highway about 60 kilometers south of Dawson City. To compose the picture, many short exposures were digitally combined to follow the concentric star trail arcs while including the greenish auroral curtains also known as the northern lights.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1003/AuroraTrails_takasaka.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Yukon Aurora with Star Trails",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1003/AuroraTrails_takasaka900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-04-13",
		"explanation": "From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 3344 face-on. Nearly 40,000 light-years across, the big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo Minor. This multi-color Hubble Space Telescope close-up of NGC 3344 includes remarkable details from near infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths. The frame extends some 15,000 light-years across the spiral's central regions. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral arms. Of course, the bright stars with a spiky appearance are in front of NGC 3344 and lie well within our own Milky Way.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/NGC3344_hst2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Facing NGC 3344",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/NGC3344_hst1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2009-05-17",
		"explanation": "Whatever hit Mimas nearly destroyed it.  What remains is one of the largest impact craters on one of Saturn's smallest moons.  The crater, named Herschel after the 1789 discoverer of Mimas, Sir William Herschel, spans about 130 kilometers and is pictured above. Mimas' low mass produces a surface gravity just strong enough to create a spherical body but weak enough to allow such relatively large surface features. Mimas is made of mostly water ice with a smattering of rock - so it is accurately described as a big dirty snowball. The above image was taken during the 2005 August flyby of the robot spacecraft Cassini now in orbit around Saturn.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090517.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0905/mimas_cassini_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Mimas: Small Moon with a Big Crater",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0905/mimas_cassini.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Till Credner & Sven KohleBonn University",
		"date": "2005-03-19",
		"explanation": "The New General Catalog of star clusters and nebulae really isn't so new. In fact, it was published in 1888 - an attempt by J. L. E. Dreyer to consolidate the work of astronomers William, Caroline, and John Herschel along with others into a useful single, complete catalog of astronomical discoveries and measurements. Dreyer's work was successful and is still important today as this famous catalog continues to lend its \"NGC\" to bright clusters, galaxies, and nebulae. Take for example this star cluster known as NGC 2266 (item number 2,266 in the NGC compilation). It lies about 10,000 light-years distant in the constellation Gemini and represents an open or galactic cluster. With an age of about 1 billion years, NGC 2266 is old for a galactic cluster. Its evolved red giant stars are readily apparent in this gorgeous three-color image.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/ngc2266_credner_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 2266: Old Cluster in the New General Catalog",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/ngc2266_credner.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2005-03-04",
		"explanation": "In this tantalizing image, young blue star clusters and pink star-forming regions abound in NGC 1427A, a galaxy in motion. The small irregular galaxy's swept back outline points toward the top of this picture from the Hubble Space Telescope - and that is indeed the direction NGC 1427A is moving as it travels toward the center of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, some 62 million light-years away. Over 20,000 light-years long and similar to the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, NGC 1427A is speeding through the Fornax cluster's intergalactic gas at around 600 kilometers per second. The resulting pressure is giving the galaxy its arrowhead outline and triggering the beautiful but violent episodes of star formation. Still, it is understood that interactions with cluster gas and the other cluster galaxies during its headlong flight will ultimately disrupt galaxy NGC 1427A. Many unrelated background galaxies are visible in the sharp Hubble image, including a striking face-on spiral galaxy at the upper left.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/ngc1427a_hst_full.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 1427A: Galaxy in Motion",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/ngc1427a_hst_c86.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-03-22",
		"explanation": "When a meteorite strikes the Moon, the energy of the impact melts some of the splattering rock, a fraction of which might cool into tiny glass beads.  Many of these glass beads were present in lunar soil samples returned to Earth by the Apollo missions.  Pictured above is one such glass spherule that measures only a quarter of a millimeter across.  This spherule is particularly interesting because it has been victim to an even smaller impact.  A miniature crater is visible on the upper left, surrounded by a fragmented area caused by the shockwaves of the small impact.  By dating many of these impacts, some astronomers estimate that cratering on our Moon increased roughly 500 million years ago and continues even today.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0003/spherule_apollo11.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Spherule from Outer Space",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0003/spherule_apollo11_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-07-05",
		"explanation": "Yesterday, July 4th, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft successfully bounced and came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. And the news is wonderful - the spacecraft appears to be in good health after having performed its complicated landing sequence superbly. Above is a mosaic of images from the martian surface transmitted shortly after Pathfinder reestablished communication with its mission operators on Earth. The solar powered, two foot long, 25 pound Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible crouched on the unfolded spacecraft. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and a rock-strewn terrain. In the distance martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The IMP camera which produced this view is also capable of stereo images and promises further spectacular pictures from Mars.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9707/mars1_pathfinder_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Pathfinder on Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9707/mars1_pathfinder.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "T. Polakis",
		"date": "1998-08-25",
		"explanation": "Before a relaxing sunrise, the sky begins to glow with unusual delights. Such was the view from Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona this April.  The glittering objects visible in this photograph are, from lower left to upper right: Phoenix, our Moon, Venus, and Jupiter.  Such proximity is somewhat unusual. Jupiter will be visible in the evening sky through the rest of the year, while Venus can be seen in the early morning sky during the month of September.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9808/moonjup_polakis_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Phoenix",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9808/moonjup_polakis.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Digital-Astronomy",
		"date": "2007-04-28",
		"explanation": "A young crescent Moon shared the western sky with thin clouds and the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster in this early evening skyscape recorded on April 19th. Astronomical images of the well-known Pleiades often show the star cluster's alluring blue reflection nebulae, but they are washed-out here in the clouds and bright moonlight. While the 3-day old Moon is overexposed, surface features can be seen on the dim lunar night side, illuminated by earthshine - light from sunlit planet Earth. Only a week earlier, brilliant Venus also posed near the sister stars. Of course, Venus has not yet wandered too far from the Pleiades and still rules western skies as the evening star.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/20070419_VenusPleiades_lawrence.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Young Moon and Sister Stars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/20070419_VenusPleiades_lawrence720.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Rogelio Bernal\nAndreo",
		"date": "2015-04-24",
		"explanation": "Lapping at rocks along the shore of the Island of Nangan, Taiwan, planet Earth, waves are infused with a subtle blue light in this sea and night skyscape. Composed of a series of long exposures made on April 16 the image captures the faint glow from Noctiluca scintillans. Also known as sea sparkles or blue tears, the marine plankton's bioluminescence is stimulated by wave motion. City lights along the coast of mainland China shine beneath low clouds in the west but stars and the faint Milky Way still fill the night above. Over the horizon the galaxy's central bulge and dark rifts seem to echo the rocks and luminous waves.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1504/RBA_BlueTears1600.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Blue Tears and the Milky Way",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1504/RBA_BlueTears1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Rick Baldridge",
		"date": "2014-01-18",
		"explanation": "This big, bright, beautiful Full Moon rose over Lick Observatory Wednesday night. Traditionally a full moon in January might be called the Wolf Moon. But this moon reached its full phase on January 16, 4:54 UT, within about 2 hours of apogee, the most distant point in its elliptical orbit around planet Earth. That also makes it the smallest full moon of 2014. Of course the difference in apparent size between the largest and smallest full moons is hard to see, because the difference in distance between lunar apogee and perigee, or closest point in the Moon's orbit, is only about 50,000 kilometers, while the Moon's average distance is around 385,000 kilometers. Though not by much, this apogee's full moon was also the smallest full moon of the last 1,000 years. It will keep that distinction until a slightly smaller full moon occurs close to apogee in 2154.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1401/2014LickFM_baldridge.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Apogee's Full Moon",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1401/2014LickFM_baldridge900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "T. A. Rector",
		"date": "2006-02-26",
		"explanation": "From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle.  A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell of dust.  Through this window, a brightly-lit workshop appears where a whole open cluster of stars is being formed.  In this cavity tall pillars and round globules of dark dust and cold molecular gas remain where stars are still forming.  Already visible are several young bright blue stars whose light and winds are burning away and pushing back the remaining filaments and walls of gas and dust.  The Eagle emission nebula, tagged M16, lies about 6500 light years away, spans about 20 light-years, and is visible with  binoculars toward the constellation of Serpens.  The above picture combines three specific emitted colors and was taken with the 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona,  USA.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0602/eagle_kp09_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Inside the Eagle Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0602/eagle_kp09.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert Gendler",
		"date": "2008-11-27",
		"explanation": "Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy practices galactic cannibalism, absorbing small galaxies that get too close and are captured by the Milky Way's gravity. In fact, the practice is common in the universe and well illustrated by this striking pair of interacting galaxies from the banks of the southern constellation Eridanus (The River). Located over 50 million light years away, the large, distorted spiral NGC 1532 is seen locked in a gravitational struggle with dwarf galaxy NGC 1531, a struggle the smaller galaxy will eventually lose. Seen edge-on, spiral NGC 1532 spans about 100,000 light-years. The NGC 1532/1531 pair is thought to be similar to the system of face-on spiral and small companion known as M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081127.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0811/NGC1532_gendler.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Galaxies in the River",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0811/NGC1532_gendler_c800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Marco Lorenzi",
		"date": "2013-01-11",
		"explanation": "How do clusters of galaxies form and evolve? To help find out, astronomers continue to study the second closest cluster of galaxies to Earth: the Fornax cluster, named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found. Although almost 20 times more distant than our neighboring Andromeda galaxy, Fornax is only about 10 percent further that the better known and more populated Virgo cluster of galaxies. Fornax has a well-defined central region that contains many galaxies, but is still evolving. It has other galaxy groupings that appear distinct and have yet to merge. Seen here, almost every yellowish splotch on the image is an elliptical galaxy in the Fornax cluster. The picturesque barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 visible on the lower right is also a prominent Fornax cluster member.   Follow APOD on: Facebook (Daily) (Sky) (Spanish) or Google Plus (Daily) (River)",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1301/fornax_lorenzi_3500.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1301/fornax_lorenzi_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Gabriel Funes",
		"date": "2019-01-18",
		"explanation": "As Earth spins on its axis, the stars appear to rotate around an observatory in this well-composed image from the Canary Island of Tenerife. Of course, the colorful concentric arcs traced out by the stars are really centered on the planet's North Celestial Pole. Convenient for northern hemisphere astro-imagers and celestial navigators alike, bright star Polaris is near the pole and positioned in this scene to be behind the telescope dome. Made with a camera fixed to a tripod, the series of over 200 stacked digital exposures spanned about 4 hours. The observatory was not operating on that clear, dark night, but that's not surprising. The dome houses the Teide Observatory's large THEMIS Solar Telescope.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1901/Startrail_Funes.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Circumpolar Star Trails",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1901/Startrail_Funes1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Brno Univ. of\nTechnology",
		"date": "2012-04-05",
		"explanation": "Sweeping from the eastern to western horizon, this 360 degree panorama follows the band of zodiacal light along the solar system's ecliptic plane. Dust scattering sunlight produces the faint zodiacal glow that spans this fundamental coordinate plane of the celestial sphere, corresponding to the apparent yearly path of the Sun through the sky and the plane of Earth's orbit. The fascinating panorama is a mosaic of images taken from dusk to dawn over the course of a single night at two different locations on Mauna Kea. The lights of Hilo, Hawaii are on the eastern (left) horizon, with the Subaru and twin Keck telescope structures near the western horizon. On that well chosen moonless night, Venus was shining as the morning star just above the eastern horizon, and Saturn was close to opposition. In fact, Saturn is seen immersed in a brightening of the zodiacal band known as the gegenschein. The gegenschein also lies near 180 degrees in elongation or angular distance from the Sun along the ecliptic. In the mosaic projection, the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs at an angle, crossing the horizontal band of zodiacal light above the two horizons. Nebulae, stars, and dust clouds of the bulging galactic center are rising in the east.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1204/2011_04_02-03_360degDruckmuller.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Zodiacal Light Panorama",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1204/2011_04_02-03_360degDruckmuller600.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2016-06-11",
		"explanation": "Named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found, the Fornax Cluster is one of the closest clusters of galaxies. About 62 million light-years away, it is almost 20 times more distant than our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy, and only about 10 percent further than the better known and more populated Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Seen across this two degree wide field-of-view, almost every yellowish splotch on the image is an elliptical galaxy in the Fornax cluster. A standout barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is visible on the lower right as a prominent Fornax cluster member. The spectacular image was taken by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/eso1612aFornaxCluster.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/eso1612aFornaxCluster1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2002-09-21",
		"explanation": "During the Astro-1 astronomy mission of December, 1990, Space Shuttle astronauts photographed this stunning view of the setting full moon poised above the Earth's limb. In the foreground, towering clouds of condensing water vapor mark the extent of the troposphere, the lowest layer of the planet's life-sustaining atmosphere. Strongly scattering blue sunlight, the upper atmospheric layer, the stratosphere, fades dramatically to the black background of space. Moon and clouds are strong visual elements of many well known portraits of planet Earth, including Ansel Adams' famous \"Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico\", photographed in 1941.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0209/moonset_sts35_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Moonset, Planet Earth",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0209/moonset_sts35.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Bastien Foucher",
		"date": "2017-08-15",
		"explanation": "Chaos reigns in the Carina Nebula where massive stars form and die. Striking and detailed, this close-up of a portion of the famous nebula is a combination of light emitted by hydrogen (shown in red) and oxygen (shown in blue).  Dramatic dark dust knots and complex features revealed are sculpted by the winds and radiation of Carina's massive and energetic stars.  One iconic feature of the Carina Nebula is the dark V-shaped dust lane that occurs in the top half of the image. The Carina Nebula spans about 200 light years, lies about 7,500 light years distant, and is visible with binoculars toward the southern constellation of Carina. In a billion years after the dust settles -- or is destroyed, and the gas dissipates -- or gravitationally condenses, then only the stars will remain -- but not even the brightest ones.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1708/Carina_Foucher_2695.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Stars, Gas, and Dust Battle in the Carina Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1708/Carina_Foucher_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1995-12-05",
		"explanation": "What evil lurks in the hearts of galaxies?  The above picture by the Hubble Space Telescope of the center of the nearby galaxy NGC 4261 tells us one dramatic tale.  Here gas and dust are seen swirling near this elliptical galaxy's center into what is almost certainly a massive black hole. The disk is probably what remains of a smaller galaxy that fell in hundreds of millions of years ago. Collisions like this may be a common way of creating such active galactic nuclei as quasars. Strangely, the center of this fiery whirlpool is offset from the exact center of the galaxy - for a reason that for now remains an astronomical mystery.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/ngc4261_hst_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Swirling Center of NGC 4261",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/ngc4261_hst.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Yuri Beletsky",
		"date": "2018-01-20",
		"explanation": "Also known as the Moon's \"ashen glow\" or the \"Old Moon in the New Moon's arms\", earthshine is earthlight reflected from the Moon's night side. This stunning image of earthshine from a young crescent moon was taken from Las Campanas Observatory, Atacama Desert, Chile, planet Earth near moonset on January 18. Dramatic atmospheric inversion layers appear above the Pacific Ocean, colored by the sunset at the planet's western horizon. But the view from the Moon would have been stunning, too. When the Moon appears in Earth's sky as a slender crescent, a dazzlingly bright, nearly full Earth would be seen from the lunar surface. A description of earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth's oceans in turn illuminating the Moon's dark surface, was written 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1801/moonsetLasCampanas_beletsky.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Old Moon in the New Moon's Arms",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1801/moonsetLasCampanas_beletsky1024c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-01-15",
		"explanation": "What does a black hole look like? If alone,\r a black hole\r would indeed appear\r quite black, but many black hole candidates are part of binary star systems.\r So how does a black hole binary system\r look different from a neutron star binary system?\r The above drawings indicate it\r is difficult to tell! Recent theoretical work,\r however, has provided a new way to tell them apart: advective accretion flows (ADAFs).\r A black hole system so equipped\r would appear much darker than a similar neutron star\r system. The difference is caused by the hot gas from the ADAF disk\r falling through the event horizon\r of the black hole and disappearing - gas that would have emitted\r much light were the central object only a neutron star. Recent observations\r of the soft X-ray transient\r V404 Cyg\r has yielded a spectrum\r much like an ADAF onto a black hole\r - and perhaps brighter than allowable from an ADAF onto a neutron\r star. \r",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9701/xraybin_heasarc.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Black Holes Signature From Advective Disks\r\nResearch Credit:",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9701/xraybin_heasarc.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2004-08-03",
		"explanation": "What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human?  Then you might be the Opportunity rover currently exploring Mars.  Opportunity and sister robot Spirit have been probing the red planet since January, finding evidence of ancient water, and sending breathtaking images across the inner Solar System.  Pictured above, Opportunity looks opposite the Sun into Endurance Crater and sees its own shadow.  Two wheels are visible on the lower left and right, while the floor and walls of the unusual crater are visible in the background.  Opportunity is cautiously edging its way into this enigmatic crater, hoping to find new clues into the wet ancient past of our Solar System's second most habitable planet.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0408/shadow_opportunity_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Shadow of a Martian Robot",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0408/shadow_opportunity.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1999-11-17",
		"explanation": "Tonight, a lucky few may see a meteor explode.  Over the next 36 hours the Earth will pass unusually close to debris expelled from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, causing many sand-sized particles from this comet to enter and burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.  This yearly phenomenon is known as the Leonids Meteor Shower, but the location the Earth passes through this year holds promise to provide particularly high activity.  The 1998 Leonids was noteworthy for its many bright meteors.  In the above slow-loading sequence, a 1998 Leonid was caught exploding over Los Alamos, New Mexico.  In the last one-minute exposure, another Leonid streaks past.  If tonight is clear, just grab a lawn chair and a warm jacket, go outside, and look up!",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9911/leonidanim_rotse_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Leonid Meteor Explodes",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9911/leonidanim_rotse.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-03-09",
		"explanation": "The Arecibo radio telescope is currently the largest single-dish telescope in the world. First opening in 1963, this 305 meter (1000 foot) radio telescope resides in a natural valley of Puerto Rico. The Arecibo telescope has been used for many astronomical research projects, including searches and studies of pulsars, and mapping atomic and molecular gas in the Galaxy and the universe. As the Arecibo dish can also be used to send radio waves, it has bounced and recorded radiation off of planets in our Solar System, and has even broadcast messages to areas of the Galaxy that might contain intelligent extra-terrestrial life. Any person in the world may use the telescope, providing their proposal is selected by a review committee.   Information: The Scale of the Universe Debate in April 1996",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/arecibo_naic_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Arecibo: The Largest Telescope",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/arecibo_naic.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-01-22",
		"explanation": "Indicated on this infrared image of the galactic center region is the position of SGR 1900+14 - the strongest known magnet in the galaxy. SGR 1900+14 is believed to be a city-sized, spinning, super-magnetic neutron star, or Magnetar. How strong is a Magnetar's magnetic field? The Earth's magnetic field which deflects compass needles is measured to be about 1 Gauss, the strongest fields sustainable in Earth-based laboratories are about 100,000 Gauss, yet the Magnetar's monster magnetic field is estimated to be 1,000,000,000,000,000 Gauss. A magnet this strong, located at about half the distance to the Moon would easily erase your credit cards and suck pens out of your pocket. In 1998, from a distance of about 20,000 light-years, SGR 1900+14 generated a powerful flash of gamma-rays detected by many spacecraft. That blast of high-energy radiation is now known to have had a measurable effect on Earth's ionosphere. At the surface of the Magnetar, its powerful magnetic field is thought to buckle and shift the neutron star crust generating the intense gamma-ray flares.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0001/magnetarcobe_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Magnetar In The Sky",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0001/magnetarcobe.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2003-04-26",
		"explanation": "This reconstructed digital portrait of our planet is reminiscent of the Apollo-era pictures of the \"big blue marble\" Earth from space. To create it, researchers at Goddard Space Flight Center's Laboratory for Atmospheres combined data from a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), and the Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) with a USGS elevation model of Earth's topography. Stunningly detailed, the planet's western hemisphere is cast so that heavy vegetation is green and sparse vegetation is yellow, while the heights of mountains and depths of valleys have been exaggerated by 50 times to make vertical relief visible.  Hurricane Linda is the dramatic storm off North America's west coast. And what about the Moon? The lunar image was reconstructed from GOES data and artistically rescaled for this visualization.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0304/bluemarble2k_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Big Blue Marble Earth",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0304/bluemarble2k.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2014-11-14",
		"explanation": "The Rosetta Mission lander is safely on a comet. One of Philae's feet appears at the bottom left of this spectacular image of the surface of C67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Still a happy lander, Philae bounced twice before settling and returning images from the surface, traveling a kilometer or so after initially touching at the targeted site Agilkia. A surface panorama suggests that the lander has come to rest tilted and near a shadowing wall, with its solar panels getting less illumination than hoped. Philae's science instruments are working as planned and data is being relayed during communications windows, when the Rosetta spacecraft is above the lander's new horizon.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1411/Welcome_to_a_comet.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Welcome to a Comet",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1411/Welcome_to_a_comet700.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "FIAAAB612 Foundation",
		"date": "2013-02-21",
		"explanation": "How would you change the course of an Earth-threatening asteroid? One possibility - a massive spacecraft that uses gravity as a towline - is illustrated in this artist's vision of a gravitational tractor in action. In the hypothetical scenario worked out in 2005 by Edward Lu and Stanley Love at NASA's Johnson Space Center, a 20 ton nuclear-electric spacecraft tows a 200 meter diameter asteroid by simply hovering near the asteroid. The spacecraft's ion drive thrusters are canted away from the surface. Their slight but steady thrust would gradually and predictably alter the course of the tug and asteroid, coupled by their mutual gravitational attraction. While it sounds like the stuff of science fiction, ion drives do power existing spacecraft. One advantage of using a gravitational tractor is that it would work regardless of the asteroid's structure. Given sufficient warning and time, a gravitational tractor could deflect the path of an asteroid known to be on a collision course enough to miss planet Earth.  APOD Public Talk Tonight: Howard Astronomical League, Columbia, MD",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1302/gravtug_durda.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Gravitational Tractor",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1302/gravtug_durda.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Wally Pacholka",
		"date": "2005-10-31",
		"explanation": "From sunset to sunrise, an unusually bright yellowish orb will hang in the sky this Halloween: Mars.  Yesterday, Earth passed Mars as they orbited the Sun, bringing Mars closer than it will be for the next thirteen years.  Tonight though, Mars will be nearly as bright as last night, a beacon of extraterrestrial spookiness.  Opposite the Sun, Mars will rise just when the Sun sets, set just when the Sun rises, and be visible the entire night.  Mars will not always be the brightest object in tonight's sky, though.  Brighter than even Mars, almost spooky Venus will light up the western horizon for a brief time just after sunset.   Please have a safe and happy All Hallows Eve.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0510/marshalloween_pacholka_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Martian Halloween",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0510/marshalloween_pacholka.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-04-13",
		"explanation": "rlier this April, NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, completed its fifth successful year in orbit, exploring the gamma ray sky. Pictured is astronaut Jay Apt perched in the shuttle payload bay below the massive observatory.  Compton is the largest civilian instrument ever flown - the whole observatory is roughly the size of a school bus. Apt and colleague Jerry Ross rescued the spacecraft from an unexpected problem by successfully freeing the stuck high gain antenna in an unplanned space walk. The second of NASA's planned Great Observatories for Space Astrophysics, the first being the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory has exceeded expectations of scientific discovery. Compton continues to search the depths of the universe for such high energy phenomena as gamma-ray bursts, blazars, and pulsars. Compton is still monitoring a new source it discovered just last December - the spectacular \"bursting pulsar\" near the center of our Galaxy.   Information: The Scale of the Universe Debate in April 1996",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/gro_deploy.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Compton Observatory Turns Five",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/gro_deploy.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-06-25",
		"explanation": "Stars sometimes form in colorful ways.  Pictured above is a small region in the nearby LMC galaxy where stars are forming. After a star is born, it may do several things to energize its immediate neighborhood. It may develop a strong wind which pushes away nearby gas; it may be so hot and intense that emitted light boils away nearby dust and gas, and it may be so massive that it soon goes supernova and catapults its elements back to the interstellar medium. Astronomers study regions like this - named DEM192 - to better understand how these and other processes proceed. This picture is a composite of three separate photographs, each sensitive to only one specific color of light - a color that distinguishes a specific chemical element.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/dem192_umich_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Star Forming Region in the LMC",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/dem192_umich.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-09-12",
		"explanation": "Why does this Martian rock have so much zinc? Roughly the size and shape of a tilted coffee-table, this oddly flat, light-topped rock outcropping was chanced upon a few weeks ago by the robotic Opportunity rover currently rolling across Mars. Early last month Opportunity reached Endeavour crater, the largest surface feature it has ever encountered, and is now exploring Endeavour's rim for clues about how wet Mars was billions of years ago. Pictured above and named Tisdale 2, the unusual rock structure was probed by Opportunity last week and is now thought to be a remnant thrown off during the impact that created nearby Odyssey crater. The resulting chemical analysis of Tisdale 2, however, has shown it to have a strangely high amount of the element zinc. The reason for this is currently unknown, but might turn out to be a clue to the history of the entire region. Opportunity is already finding rocks older than any previously studied and will continue to explore several other intriguing rock formations only now glimpsed from a distance.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1109/tisdale2_opportunity_1024.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Tisdale 2 Rock Formation on Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1109/tisdale2_opportunity_900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Yuichi TakasakaTWAN",
		"date": "2009-09-22",
		"explanation": "Sometimes, after your eyes adapt to the dark, a spectacular sky appears. In this case, a picturesque lake lies in front of you, beautiful green auroras flap high above you, brilliant stars shine far in the distance, and a brilliant moon shines just ahead of you. This digitally fused panorama was captured earlier this month from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, and includes the Pleiades open cluster of stars just to the upper right of the Moon. Since auroras are ultimately started by solar activity, this current flurry of auroras is somewhat surprising, given the historic lack of sunspots and other activity on the Sun over the past two years. This time of year is known as aurora season, however, for noted average increases in auroras. The reason for the yearly increase is not known for sure, but possibly relates to the tilt of the Earth creating a more easily traversable connection between the Earth's magnetic field and the magnetic field of the Sun's changing wind streams.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090922.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0909/aurorayellowknife_takasaka_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Aurora Over Yellowknife",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0909/aurorayellowknife_takasaka.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2021-04-19",
		"explanation": "What does the center of our galaxy look like?  In visible light, the Milky Way's center is hidden by clouds of obscuring dust and gas. But in this stunning vista, the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared cameras, penetrate much of the dust revealing the stars of the crowded galactic center region. A mosaic of many smaller snapshots, the detailed, false-color image shows older, cool stars in bluish hues. Red and brown glowing dust clouds are associated with young, hot stars in stellar nurseries. The very center of the Milky Way has recently been found capable of forming newborn stars. The galactic center lies some 26,700 light-years away, toward the constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this picture spans about 900 light-years.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2104/GalacticCore_SpitzerSchmidt_6143.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Galactic Center in Infrared",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2104/GalacticCore_SpitzerSchmidt_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-05-26",
		"explanation": "To create a sonata from supernovae, first you have to find the supernovae. To do that composers Alex Parker and Melissa Graham relied on the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) Legacy Survey data of four deep fields on the sky monitored from April 2003 through August 2006, adopting 241 Type Ia supernovae. Enchanting to cosmologists, Type Ia supernovae are thermonuclear explosions that destroy white dwarf stars. Then, they gave each supernova a note to play, the volume of the note determined by the distance to the supernova. Fainter, more distant supernovae play quieter notes. Each note's pitch was based on a stretch factor measured by how fast the supernova brightens and fades over time relative to a standard time history. Higher stretch factors play higher notes in pitches drawn from the illustrated Phrygian dominant scale. Of course, each supernova note is played on an instrument. Supernovae in massive galaxies were assigned to a stand-up bass, while supernovae in less massive galaxies played their note on a grand piano. Click on the image or follow these links (Vimeo, YouTube) to watch a time compressed animation of the CFHT Legacy Survey data while listening to the Supernova Sonata.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1105/SupernovaSonata_parker900.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Supernova Sonata",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1105/SupernovaSonata_parker900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2001-09-06",
		"explanation": "Here's something you don't see too often ... a detailed picture of the full Moon surrounded by a rich field of background stars.  It's true that bright moonlight scattered by the atmosphere tends to mask faint stars, but pictures of the sunlit portion of the Moon made with earthbound telescopes or even with cameras on the lunar surface often fail to show any background stars at all. Why? Because the exposure times are too short. Very short exposures, lasting fractions of a second, are required to accurately record an image of the bright lunar surface. But the background stars (and galaxies!) such as those visible above are much fainter and need exposures lasting minutes to hours which would seriously overexpose the surface of the Moon. So, of course this stunning view really is a combination of two digital images -- a short exposure, registering the exquisite lunar surface details at full Moon, superposed on a separate very long exposure, made with the Moon absent from the star field. The final representation of Moon and background stars is very dramatic, even though it could not have been captured in a single exposure.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0109/moonstars_noao_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Moon AND Stars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0109/moonstars_noao.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2007-10-10",
		"explanation": "What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus?  Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal, while others are as bright as ice.  The composition of the dark material is unknown, but infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains some dark form of carbon.  Iapetus also has an unusual equatorial ridge that makes it appear like a walnut.  To help better understand this mysterious moon, NASA directed the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn to swoop within 2,000 kilometers just last month. Pictured above, from about 75,000 kilometers out, Cassini's trajectory allowed unprecedented imaging of the hemisphere of Iapetus that is always trailing.  A huge impact crater seen in the south spans a tremendous 450 kilometers and appears superposed on an older crater of similar size. The dark material is seen increasingly coating the easternmost part of Iapetus, darkening craters and highlands alike.  Close inspection indicates that the dark coating typically faces the moon's equator.  Whether Iapetus' colors are the result of unusual episodes of internal volcanism or external splattering remains unknown.  This and other images from Cassini's Iapetus flyby are being studied for even greater clues.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0710/iapetus2_cassini_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Strange Trailing Side of Saturn's Iapetus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0710/iapetus2_cassini.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1999-03-13",
		"explanation": "Hurtling through space a mere 3,000 miles above the Martian surface, the diminutive moon Phobos (below and left of center) was imaged against the backdrop of a large shield volcano by the Viking 2 Orbiter in 1977. This dramatic picture looks down from the Orbiter's viewpoint about 8,000 miles above the volcano, Ascraeus Mons. Phobos itself is 5,000 miles below the Orbiter. North is toward the top with the Sun illuminating the scene from the South (black dots are reference marks). For scale, Ascraeus Mons is about 200 miles across at its base while asteroid sized Phobos is about 15 miles in diameter. In this spectacular moon-planet image, volcanic calderas (craters) are visible at the summit of Ascraeus Mons -- while impact craters on the sunlit side of Phobos' surface can also be seen!",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9903/phobosmars_viking2_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Phobos Over Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9903/phobosmars_viking2.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Wei Loon Chin",
		"date": "2010-01-26",
		"explanation": "A hole crossed the Sun for a few minutes this month, as seen across a thin swath of planet Earth. The event on January 15 was actually an annular solar eclipse, and the hole was really Earth's Moon, an object whose dark half may appear even darker when compared to the tremendously bright Sun. The Moon was too far from Earth to create a total solar eclipse, but instead left well placed observers with a bright surrounding circle called the ring of fire. Pictured above was a complete solar annular eclipse sequence as seen above the Ananda Temple in Bagan, Myanmar.  The image of the ancient temple, built around the year 1100, was taken after sunset on the same day of the eclipse. The next solar eclipse will be a total solar eclipse during 2010 July.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100126.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1001/mynmareclipse_chin_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Annular Eclipse Over Myanmar",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1001/mynmareclipse_chin.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-01-08",
		"explanation": "The Milky Way Galaxy is not alone.  It is part of a gathering of about 25 galaxies known as the Local Group. Members include the Great Andromeda Galaxy (M31), M32, M33, the Large Magellanic Clouds, the Small Magellanic Clouds, Dwingeloo 1, several small irregular galaxies, and many dwarf elliptical galaxies. Pictured is one of the many dwarf ellipticals: NGC 205.  Like M32, NGC 205 is a companion to the large M31, and can sometimes be seen to the south of M31's center in photographs.  The above image shows this galaxy to be unusual for an elliptical galaxy in that it contains at least two dust clouds (at 7 and 11 o'clock - they are visible but hard to spot) and signs of recent star formation.  This galaxy is sometimes known as M110, although it was actually not part of Messier's original catalog.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/ngc205_lowell.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Local Group Galaxy NGC 205",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/ngc205_lowell.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Danny Lee Russell",
		"date": "2009-06-30",
		"explanation": "Here are some familiar shapes in unfamiliar locations.  This emission nebula on the left is famous partly because it resembles Earth's continent of North America.  To the right of the North America Nebula, cataloged as NGC 7000, is a less luminous nebula that resembles a pelican dubbed the Pelican Nebula.  The two emission nebula measure about 50 light-years across, are located about 1,500 light-years away, and are separated by a dark absorption cloud.  This spectacular image captures the nebulas, bright ionization fronts, and fine details of the dark dust. The nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location.  Look for a small nebular patch north-east of bright star Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus.  It is still unknown which star or stars ionize the red-glowing hydrogen gas.    digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090630.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0906/northpelican_russell_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The North America and Pelican Nebulae",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0906/northpelican_russell.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2017-01-21",
		"explanation": "Plunging close to the outer edges of Saturn's rings, on January 16 the Cassini spacecraft captured this closest yet view of Daphnis. About 8 kilometers across and orbiting within the bright ring system's Keeler gap, the small moon is making waves. The 42-kilometer wide outer gap is foreshortened in the image by Cassini's viewing angle. Raised by the influenced of the small moon's weak gravity as it crosses the frame from left to right, the waves are formed in the ring material at the edge of the gap. A faint wave-like trace of ring material is just visible trailing close behind Daphnis. Remarkable details on Daphnis can also be seen, including a narrow ridge around its equator, likely an accumulation of particles from the ring.  Participate: Take an Aesthetics & Astronomy Survey",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1701/PIA21056.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Daphnis the Wavemaker",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1701/PIA21056_1020c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2014-04-23",
		"explanation": "From planet Earth, we see this strongly distorted pair of galaxies, cataloged as Arp 81, as they were only about 100 million years after their close encounter. The havoc wreaked by their mutual gravitational interaction during the encounter is detailed in this color composite showing twisted streams of gas and dust, a chaos of massive star formation, and a tidal tail stretching for 200 thousand light-years or so as it sweeps behind the cosmic wreckage. Also known as NGC 6622 (left) and NGC 6621, the galaxies are roughly equal in size but are destined to merge into one large galaxy in the distant future, making repeated approaches until they finally coalesce. Located in the constellation Draco, the galaxies are 280 million light-years away. Even more distant background galaxies can be spotted in the sharp, reprocessed, image from Hubble Legacy Archive data.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1404/ARP81_HLA_Pugh2.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Arp 81: 100 Million Years Later",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1404/ARP81_HLA_Pugh2.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2016-10-09",
		"explanation": "Ninety percent of the houses on Grenada were damaged by the destructive force of Hurricane Ivan.  At its peak in 2004, Ivan was a Category 5 hurricane, the highest power category on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, and created sustained winds in excess of 200 kilometers per hour.  Ivan was the largest hurricane to strike the US in 2004, and one of the more powerful in recorded history.  As it swirled in the Atlantic Ocean, the tremendous eye of Hurricane Ivan was photographed from above by the orbiting International Space Station. The name Ivan has now been retired from Atlantic Ocean use by the World Meteorological Organization.  This month, Hurricane Matthew devastated part of Haiti and is currently swirling just off the east coast of the USA.   Updates: NASA Coverage of Hurricane Matthew",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1610/ivan_iss_3032.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Hurricane Ivan from the Space Station",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1610/ivan_iss_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2003-03-05",
		"explanation": "Where do people live on Planet Earth?  Although people inhabit every continent, the highest population densities occur in Asia.   Sparsely inhabited regions occur on virtually every continent, however, including the Sahara Desert in Africa, the Great White North of North America, the outback of Australia, the Amazon of South America, and the Himalayan Mountains of Asia.  The above color-coded map was produced from populations estimates made for 1994, when the world population was about 5.5 billion.  Current estimates place the world population at about 6.3 billion.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0303/peopleearth94_usda_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Where People Live on Planet Earth",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0303/peopleearth94_usda.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Mia Stalnacke",
		"date": "2018-10-06",
		"explanation": "What does an aurora look like to a frog? \"Awesome!\" is the likely answer, suggested by this imaginative snapshot taken on October 3rd from Kiruna, Sweden. Frequented by apparitions of the northern lights, Kiruna is located in Lapland north of the Arctic Circle, and often under the auroral oval surrounding planet Earth's geomagnetic north pole. To create a tantalizing view from a frog's perspective the photographer turned on the flashlight on her phone and placed it on the ground facing down, resting her camera's lens on top. The \"diamonds\" in the foreground are icy pebbles right in front of the lens, lit up by the flashlight. Reflecting the shimmering northern lights, the \"lake\" is a frozen puddle on the ground. Of course, in the distance is the Bengt Hultqvist Observatory.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1810/AuroraFrogStalnacke3072.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Aurora: The Frog's View",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1810/AuroraFrogStalnacke1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1999-09-21",
		"explanation": "Bright clusters of stars form and disperse near the center of our Galaxy.   Four million years ago the Quintuplet Cluster, pictured above, formed and is now slowly dispersing.  The Quintuplet Cluster is located within 100 light-years of the Galactic center, and is home to the brightest star yet cataloged in our Galaxy: the Pistol Star.  Objects near our Galactic center are usually hidden from view by opaque dust. This recently-released picture was able to capture the cluster in infrared light, though, with the NICMOS camera onboard the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.  The young Quintuplet Cluster is one of the most massive open clusters yet discovered, but still much less massive than the ancient globular clusters that orbit in the distant halo.  Some of the bright white stars visible above may be on the verge of blowing themselves up in a spectacular supernova.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9909/quintuplet_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Quintuplet Star Cluster",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9909/quintuplet_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-02-17",
		"explanation": "A wind from the Sun blows through our Solar System. The behaviour of comet tails as they flapped and waved in this interplanetary breeze gave astronomers the first hint of its existence. Streaming outward at 250-400 miles/second, electrons and ions boiling off the Sun's incredibly hot but tenuous corona account for the Solar Wind - now known to affect the Earth and other planets along with voyaging spacecraft. Rooted in the Solar Magnetic Field, the structure of the corona is visible in this composite image from the EIT and UVCS instruments onboard the SOHO spacecraft, extending a million miles above the Sun's surface. The dark areas, known as coronal holes, represent the regions where the highest speed Solar Wind originates.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9702/solwind_soho.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Wind From The Sun\n\nCredit:",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9702/solwind_soho.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Philippe\nMoussetteObs. Mont\nCosmos",
		"date": "2004-11-09",
		"explanation": "On some nights the sky is the most interesting show in town.  This fisheye picture captures a particularly active and colorful auroral corona that occurred two days ago over l'Observatoire de la Decouverte in Val Belair near Quebec, Canada.  The above spectacular aurora has an unusually high degree of detail, range of colors, and breadth across the sky.  The vivid green, red, and blue auroral colors are likely caused by high atmospheric oxygen and hydrogen reacting to incoming electrons.  The trigger events were magnetically induced explosions on the Sun from sunspot region 696 over the past few days.  Continued activity from this active solar region could mean more auroras visible to northern observers over the next few days.  Early in the morning but far in the background, planets, stars and the Moon will be simultaneously putting on their own show.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0411/aurora_moussette_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Full Sky Multicolored Auroral Corona",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0411/aurora_moussette.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Derek Santiago",
		"date": "2010-09-25",
		"explanation": "Cosmic clouds seem to form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. Of course, the clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are near the center in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds silhouetted against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrow and broad band telescopic images, the view spans about 40 light-years and includes emission from hydrogen in green, sulfur in red, and oxygen in blue hues. Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name - The Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1009/IC1805Crop_santiago.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Melotte 15 in the Heart",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1009/IC1805Crop_santiago800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-08-02",
		"explanation": "The Crescent Nebula is a rapidly expanding shell of gas surrounding a dying star.  In this recently released image by the Hubble Space Telescope, a bright dynamic part of the nebula three light-years across is shown in representative color.  The Crescent Nebula began to form about 250,000 years ago as central Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 began to shed its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, expelling the equivalent of our Sun's mass every 10,000 years.  This wind has been impacting surrounding interstellar gas, compacting it into a series of complex shells, and lighting it up.  The Crescent Nebula, also known as NGC 6888, lies about 4,700 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus and can only be seen through a telescope.  Star WR 136 will probably undergo a supernova explosion sometime in the next million years.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0008/crescent_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "At the Edge of the Crescent Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0008/crescent_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Rudy Montoya",
		"date": "2018-08-28",
		"explanation": "very step caused the sand to light up blue. That glow was bioluminescence -- a blue radiance that also lights the surf in this surreal scene captured last month at Meyer's Creek Beach in Oregon, USA. Volcanic stacks dot the foreground sea, while a thin fog layer scatters light on the horizon. The rays of light spreading from the left horizon were created by car headlights on the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101), while the orange light on the right horizon emanates from a fishing boat.  Visible far in the distance is the band of our Milky Way Galaxy, appearing to rise from a dark rocky outcrop.  Sixteen images were added together to bring up the background Milky Way and to reduce noise.   Follow APOD on: Facebook,  Google Plus,  Instagram, or Twitter",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1808/MilkyWayOregon_Montoya_1500.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Sea and Sky Glows over the Oregon Coast",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1808/MilkyWayOregon_Montoya_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-12-29",
		"explanation": "At night, from a dark location, part of the clear sky looks milky.  This unusual swath of dim light is generally visible during any month and from any location.  Until the invention of the telescope, nobody really knew what the \"Milky Way\" was.  About 300 years ago telescopes caused a startling revelation: the Milky Way was made of stars.  Only 70 years ago, more powerful telescopes brought the further revelation that the Milky Way is only one galaxy among many.  Now telescopes in space allow yet deeper understanding.  The above picture was taken by the COBE satellite and shows the plane of our Galaxy in infrared light. The thin disk of our home spiral galaxy is clearly apparent, with stars appearing white and interstellar dust appearing red.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9712/milkyway_cobe_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Milky Way in Infrared",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9712/milkyway_cobe.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2003-07-31",
		"explanation": "Posing for this cosmic family photo are the galaxies of HCG (Hickson Compact Group) 87, about four hundred million light-years distant toward the amphibious constellation Capricornus. The large edge-on spiral near picture center, the fuzzy elliptical galaxy immediately to its right, and the spiral near the top of the image are identified members of the group, while the small spiral galaxy in the middle is likely a more distant background galaxy. In any event, a careful examination of the deep image reveals other galaxies which certainly lie far beyond HCG 87. While not exactly locked in a group hug, the HCG 87 galaxies are interacting gravitationally, influencing their fellow group members' structure and evolution. This new image is from an instrument undergoing commissioning on the Gemini Observatory's South Telescope at Cerro Pachon, Chile. It compares favorably with views of this photogenic galaxy group recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0307/hcg87_gmoss_full.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Galaxy Group HCG 87",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0307/hcg87_gmoss_c1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Joe Orman",
		"date": "2002-04-10",
		"explanation": "How did those big rocks end up on that strange terrain? One of the more unusual places here on Earth occurs inside Death Valley, California, USA.  There a dried lakebed named Racetrack Playa exists that is almost perfectly flat, with the odd exception of some very large stones, one of which is pictured above.  Now the flatness and texture of large playa like Racetrack are fascinating but not scientifically puzzling -- they are caused by mud flowing, drying, and cracking after a heavy rain.  Only recently, however, has a viable scientific hypothesis been given to explain how 300-kilogram stones ended up near the middle of such a large flat surface.  Unfortunately, as frequently happens in science, a seemingly surreal problem ends up having a relatively mundane solution.  It turns out that high winds after a rain can push even heavy rocks across a momentarily slick lakebed.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0204/flatlake_orman_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Unusual Rocks in Death Valley",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0204/flatlake_orman.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Vic & Jen Winter",
		"date": "2001-07-26",
		"explanation": "When the Moon's shadow reached out and touched Earth's southern hemisphere on 2001 June 21, the first total solar eclipse of the 21st century began. Starting in the Atlantic, the dark, central lunar shadow or umbra traced a path which crossed southern Africa and the large island of Madagascar before ending at sunset in the Indian Ocean. Of course, as the lunar disk blocked the Sun the total phase offered splendid views of the elusive outer solar corona. But, as seen in this stunning telescopic view from southern Madagascar, it also revealed an active solar limb bristling with pinkish, planet-sized prominences. Taken as totality began, this image of the last bright rays of sunlight shining through dips and valleys in irregular lunar terrain gives the illusion of a glittering jewel set in a pink celestial ring.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0107/madtse2001_winter.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Madagascar Totality",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0107/madtse2001_winter.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Tamas Ladanyi",
		"date": "2009-09-24",
		"explanation": "Often inspiring, or offering a moment for contemplation, a sunset is probably the most commonly photographed celestial event. But this uncommonly beautiful sunset picture was taken on a special day, the Equinox on September 22. Marking the astronomical change of seasons, on that day Earth dwellers experienced nearly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness (an equal night).  Reflected in the calm waters of Lake Balaton with a motionless sailboat in silhouette, the Sun is setting due west and heading south across the celestial equator. In the background lies the Benedictine Archabbey of Tihany, Hungary.   digg_url ='http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090924.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0909/equinox_090922_ladanyi.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Equinox Sunset",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0909/equinox_090922_ladanyi900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Ken CrawfordRancho Del Sol Observatory",
		"date": "2007-02-16",
		"explanation": "NGC 2685 is a confirmed polar ring galaxy - a rare type of galaxy with stars, gas and dust orbiting in rings perpendicular to the plane of a flat galactic disk. The bizarre configuration could be caused by the chance capture of material from another galaxy by a disk galaxy, with the captured debris strung out in a rotating ring. Still, observed properties of NGC 2685 suggest that the rotating ring structure is remarkably old and stable. In this fascinating view of the peculiar system also known as Arp 336 or the Helix galaxy, the strange, perpendicular rings are easy to trace as they pass in front of the galactic disk, along with other disturbed outer structures. NGC 2685 is about 50,000 light-years across and 40 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/NGC2685_crawford.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 2685",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/NGC2685_crawford720.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-09-11",
		"explanation": "\r What is happening in the center of nearby spiral galaxy M77? To find out, astronomers used the \r Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the \r dusty chaos of this \r active galactic nucleus in 1994. \r They found a network of filamentary gas and opaque dust that provides only clues as to what central monster had left this mess. Due to the presence of hot ionized gas clouds near the core, changes in brightness that can take less than a week, and the \r ultraviolet halo surrounding the whole galaxy, the leading hypothesis is that a supermassive \r black hole lies at the center of this \r Seyfert Type 2 galaxy.  Also known as \r NGC 1068, this galaxy lies only about 50 million light years distant and is visible with only a small telescope.\r \r",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/ngc1068_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "In the Center of Spiral M77",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/ngc1068_hst.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Dan Bartlett",
		"date": "2020-06-06",
		"explanation": "Comet PanSTARRs, C/2017 T2, shared this stunning telescopic field of view with galaxies M81 and M82 on May 22/23. Of course, the galaxies were some 12 million light-years distant and the comet about 14 light-minutes away, seen in planet Earth's sky toward the Big Dipper. A new visitor from the Oort Cloud, this Comet PanSTARRs was discovered in 2017 by the PanSTARRs survey telescope when the comet was over 1 light-hour from the Sun, almost as distant as the orbit of Saturn. With a beautiful coma and dust tail, this comet has been a solid northern hemisphere performer for telescope wielding comet watchers this May, following its closest approach to the Sun on May 4. In this deep image from dark California skies the outbound comet even seems to develop a short anti-tail as it leaves the inner Solar System.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2006/C2017T2_M81M82_May22_23_2020_DEBartlett.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Comet PanSTARRs and the Galaxies",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2006/C2017T2_M81M82_May22_23_2020_DEBartlett1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-11-13",
		"explanation": "What are four closely grouped galaxies doing in this image?  The grouping composes a majority of the large galaxies in Stephan's Quintet, with the fifth prominent galaxy located off the above image to the lower right. Three of these four galaxies show nearly the same redshift, indicating that they reside at the same distance from us.  These three galaxies are in the midst a titanic collision, each ripping the others apart with gravitational tidal forces. The large bluish spiral below and left of center is a foreground galaxy much closer than the others and hence not involved in the cosmic battle.  Most of Stephan's Quintet lies about 300 million light-years away towards the constellation of Pegasus.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/quintet_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Disorder in Stephan's Quintet",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/quintet_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert Gendler",
		"date": "2009-05-10",
		"explanation": "Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda's image are actually stars in our Galaxy that are well in front of the background object. Andromeda is frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st object on Messier's list of diffuse sky objects. M31 is so distant it takes about two million years for light to reach us from there. Although visible without aid, the above image of M31 is a digital mosaic of 20 frames taken with a small telescope. Much about M31 remains unknown, including how it acquired its unusual double-peaked center.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090510.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0905/m31_gendler_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "M31: The Andromeda Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0905/m31_gendler.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-05-18",
		"explanation": "Dodging powerful laser beams, a drone captured this stunning aerial view. The confrontation took place above the 8.2 meter diameter Very Large Telescopes of the Paranal Observatory on planet Earth. Firing during a test of the observatory's 4 Laser Guide Star Facility, the lasers are ultimately battling against the blurring effect of atmospheric turbulence by creating artificial guide stars. The guide stars are actually emission from laser excited sodium atoms at high altitudes within the telescopic field of view. Guide star image fluctuations are used in real-time to correct for atmospheric blurring by controlling a deformable mirror in the telescope's optical path. Known as adaptive optics, the technique can produce images at the diffraction limit of the telescope. That's the same sharpness you would get if the telescope were in space.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1805/DJI_0058.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Attack of the Laser Guide Stars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1805/DJI_0058_1024px.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "2MASST. H. Jarrett",
		"date": "2003-09-17",
		"explanation": "Are the nearest galaxies distributed randomly? A plot of over one million of the brightest \"extended sources\" detected by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) shows that they are not.  The vast majority of these infrared extended sources are galaxies.  Visible above is an incredible tapestry of structure that provides limits on how the universe formed and evolved.  Many galaxies are gravitationally bound together to form clusters, which themselves are loosely bound into superclusters, which in turn are sometimes seen to align over even larger scale structures.  In contrast, very bright stars inside our own Milky Way Galaxy cause the vertical blue sash.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0309/galaxysky_2mass_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The 2MASS Galaxy Sky",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0309/galaxysky_2mass.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Dave Jurasevich",
		"date": "2010-09-02",
		"explanation": "Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and right of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and approximately 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula lies a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. A false-color Hubble palette was used to create this sharp image and shows emission from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in red, green, and blue hues.  The image data was recorded using a small telescope under clear, steady skies, from Mount Wilson Observatory.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1009/ngc7635_jurasevich_full.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Bubble Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1009/ngc7635_jurasevich_900c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2005-12-26",
		"explanation": "This huge puff ball was once a star.  One thousand years ago, in the year 1006, a new star was recorded in the sky that today we know was really an existing star exploding.  The resulting expanding gas from the supernova is still visible with telescopes today, continues to expand, and now spans over 70 light years.  SN 1006 glows in every type of light.  The above image of SN 1006 was captured by the orbiting Chandra Observatory in X-ray light.  Even today, not everything about the SN 1006 is understood, for example why particle shocks that produce the bright blue filaments are only visible at some locations.  SN 1006 is thought to have once been a white dwarf that exploded when gas being dumped onto it by its binary star companion caused it to go over the Chandrasekhar limit.  Foreground stars are visible that have nothing to do with the supernova.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0512/sn1006_chandra_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "SN 1006: Supernova Remnant in X-Rays",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0512/sn1006_chandra.jpg"
	},
	{
		 "copyright": "Axel\nMellinger",
    "date": "2009-08-22",
    "explanation": "Named for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum (1924-1960), The Gum Nebula is so large and close it is actually hard to see. In fact, we are only about 450 light-years from the front edge and 1,500 light-years from the back edge of this cosmic cloud of glowing hydrogen gas. Covered in this 41 degree-wide mosaic of H-alpha images, the faint emission region is otherwise easy to lose against the background of Milky Way stars. The complex nebula is thought to be a supernova remnant over a million years old, sprawling across the southern constellations Vela and Puppis.  Sliding your cursor over this spectacular wide field view will reveal the location of objects embedded in The Gum Nebula, including the Vela supernova remnant.   digg_url ='http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090822.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
    "hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0908/Vela_50mm_HaRGB_1000.jpg",
    "media_type": "image",
    "service_version": "v1",
    "title": "The Gum Nebula",
    "url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0908/Vela_50mm_HaRGB_f88.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2003-06-27",
		"explanation": "Slung below its equally innovative mothership dubbed White Knight, SpaceShipOne rides above planet Earth, photographed during a recent flight test. SpaceShipOne was designed and built by cutting-edge aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites to compete for the X Prize. The 10 million dollar X prize is open to private companies and requires the successful launch of a spaceship which carries three people on short sub-orbital flights to an altitude of 100 kilometers -- a scenario similar to the early manned spaceflights of NASA's Mercury Program. Unlike more conventional rocket flights to space, SpaceShipOne will first be carried to an altitude of 50,000 feet by the twin turbojet White Knight and then released before igniting its own hybrid solid fuel rocket engine. After the climb to space, the craft will convert to a stable high drag configuration for re-entry, ultimately landing like a conventional glider at light plane speeds.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0306/ssone_cap_car.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "SpaceShipOne",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0306/ssone_scaled_c1topcarry.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Jes�s VargasAstrogades",
		"date": "2011-09-13",
		"explanation": "The Great Nebula in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the most famous nebulas in the sky. The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars are on the right in this sharp and colorful image that includes the smaller nebula M43 near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae NGC 1977 and friends on the left. Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular cloud complex, these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of interstellar material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant planetary systems. The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45 light-years at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1109/m42_vargas_1826.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Great Orion Nebulae",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1109/m42_vargas_900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2009-10-20",
		"explanation": "What does a solar prominence look like in three dimensions? To help find out, NASA launched the STEREO satellites to keep a steady eye on the Sun from two different vantage points. The STEREO satellites orbit the Sun nearly along Earth's orbit, but one (dubbed Ahead) currently leads the Earth, while the other (dubbed Behind) currently trails.  Three weeks ago, a powerful prominence erupted and remained above the Sun for about 30 hours, allowing the STEREO satellites to get numerous views of the prominence from different angles. Pictured above is a high-resolution image of the event from the STEREO Ahead satellite.  A video of the prominence erupting as seen from both spacecraft can be found here. The unusually quiet nature of the Sun over the past two years has made large prominences like this relatively rare. The combined perspective of STEREO will help astronomers better understand the mechanisms for the creation and evolution of prominences, coronal mass ejections, and flares.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091020.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0910/prominence_stereo_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Solar Prominence Erupts in STEREO",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0910/prominence_stereo.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert Schwarz",
		"date": "2012-08-02",
		"explanation": "No star dips below the horizon and the Sun never climbs above it in this remarkable image of 24 hour long star trails. Showing all the trails as complete circles, such an image could be achieved only from two places on planet Earth. This example was recorded during the course of May 1, 2012, the digital camera in a heated box on the roof of MAPO, the Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory at the South Pole.  Directly overhead in the faint constellation Octans is the projection of Earth's rotational axis, the South Celestial Pole, at the center of all the star trail circles. Not so well placed as Polaris and the North Celestial Pole, the star leaving the small but still relatively bright circle around the South Celestial Pole is Beta Hydri. The inverted umbrella structure on the horizon at the right of the allsky field of view is the ground shield for the SPUD telescope. A shimmering apparition of the aurora australis also visited on this 24 hour night.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1208/Startrails24Schwartz.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "South Pole Star Trails",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1208/Startrails24Schwartz800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Martin Pugh",
		"date": "2010-08-20",
		"explanation": "Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the chemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax galaxy cluster. This impressively sharp color image shows intense star forming regions at the ends of the bar and along the spiral arms, and details of dust lanes cutting across the galaxy's bright core. At the core lies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into the central black hole.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1008/NGC1365_pugh.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1008/NGC1365_pugh900c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2016-11-01",
		"explanation": "Is only one black hole spewing high energy radiation -- or two? To help find out, astronomers trained NASA's Earth-orbiting NuSTAR and Chandra telescopes on Arp 299, the enigmatic colliding galaxies expelling the radiation. The two galaxies of Arp 299 have been locked in a gravitational combat for millions of years, while their central black holes will soon do battle themselves. Featured, the high-resolution visible-light image was taken by Hubble, while the superposed diffuse glow of X-ray light was imaged by NuSTAR and shown in false-color red, green, and blue. NuSTAR observations show that only one of the central black holes is seen fighting its way through a region of gas and dust -- and so absorbing matter and emitting X-rays. The energetic radiation, coming only from the galaxy center on the right, is surely created nearby -- but outside -- the central black hole's event horizon. In a billion years or so, only one composite galaxy will remain, and only one central supermassive black hole.  Soon thereafter, though, another galaxy may enter the fray.    Transparent Science: Browse 1,350+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1611/Arp299_NustarHubble_3000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Arp 299: Black Holes in Colliding Galaxies",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1611/Arp299_NustarHubble_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2017-01-15",
		"explanation": "What's the matter with the Bullet Cluster? This massive cluster of galaxies (1E 0657-558) creates gravitational lens distortions of background galaxies in a way that has been interpreted as strong evidence for the leading theory: that dark matter exists within. Different recent analyses, though, indicate that a less popular alternative -- modifying gravity-- could explain cluster dynamics without dark matter, and provide a more likely progenitor scenario as well. Currently, the two scientific hypotheses are competing to explain the observations: it's invisible matter versus amended gravity. The duel is dramatic as a clear Bullet-proof example of dark matter would shatter the simplicity of modified gravity theories.  For the near future, the battle over the Bullet cluster is likely to continue as new observations, computer simulations, and analyses are completed.  The featured image is a Hubble/Chandra/Magellan composite with red depicting the X-rays emitted by hot gas, and blue depicting the suggested separated dark matter distribution.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1701/bulletcluster_comp_2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Matter of the Bullet Cluster",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1701/bulletcluster_comp_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2005-12-02",
		"explanation": "The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first object on Charles Messier's famous list of things which are not comets. In fact, the cosmic Crab is now known to be a supernova remnant, an expanding cloud of debris from the death explosion of a massive star. Light from that stellar catastrophe was first witnessed by astronomers on planet Earth in the year 1054. Composed of 24 exposures taken in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000, this Hubble Space Telescope mosaic spans about twelve light years. Colors in the intricate filaments trace the light emitted from atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur in the debris cloud. The spooky blue interior glow is emitted by high-energy electrons accelerated by the Crab's central pulsar",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0512/crabmosaic_hst_f.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Crab Nebula Mosaic from HST",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0512/crabmosaic_hst_c80.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2017-12-02",
		"explanation": "Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier, from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also given to these two large and remarkable craters on the Moon. Standouts in the dark, smooth lunar Sea of Fertility or Mare Fecunditatis, Messier (left) and Messier A have dimensions of 15 by 8 and 16 by 11 kilometers respectively. Their elongated shapes are explained by a left-to-right moving, extremely shallow-angle trajectory followed by an impactor that gouged out the craters. The shallow impact also resulted in two bright rays of material extending along the surface to the right, beyond the picture. Intended to be viewed with red/blue glasses (red for the left eye), this striking stereo picture of the crater pair was recently created from high resolution scans of two images (AS11-42-6304, AS11-42-6305) taken during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1712/MessierCrater3d_vantuyne.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Messier Craters in Stereo",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1712/MessierCrater3d_vantuyne1024c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Adam Block",
		"date": "2005-06-03",
		"explanation": "The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764.  At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with comets.  The 27th object on Messier's list, now known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, the type of nebula our Sun will produce when nuclear fusion stops in its core.  M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky, and can be seen in the constellation Vulpecula with binoculars.  It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27,  shown above, digitally sharpened, in three standard colors. Understanding the physics and significance of M27 was well beyond 18th century science.  Even today, many things remain mysterious about bipolar planetary nebula like M27, including the physical mechanism that expels a low-mass star's gaseous outer-envelope, leaving an X-ray hot white dwarf.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0506/m27_metcalf_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "M27: The Dumbbell Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0506/m27_metcalf.jpg"
	},
	{
	"date": "2008-08-28",
		"explanation": "Launched on June 11 to explore the universe at extreme energies, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope has been officially renamed the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, in honor of Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), pioneer in high-energy physics. After testing, Fermi's two instruments, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) and the Large Area Telescope (LAT), are now regularly returning data. Fermi's first map of the gamma-ray sky from the LAT is shown in this false-color image, an all-sky view that looks toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy with the galactic plane projected across the middle. What shines in the gamma-ray sky? Along the galactic plane, energetic cosmic rays collide with gas and dust to produce the diffuse gamma-ray glow. Strong emission from spinning neutron stars or pulsars, and distant active galaxies known as blazars, can be identified by placing your cursor over the map. A prelude to future discoveries, the remarkable result combines only 4 days of observations, equivalent to a year of observations with the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory mission of the 1990s. In addition to the ability to monitor gamma-ray bursts, the greatly improved sensitivity will allow Fermi to look deeper into the high-energy Universe.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080828.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0808/allsky_Fermi_2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Fermi's First Light",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0808/allsky_Fermi_800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2006-01-07",
		"explanation": "Awkward and angular looking, Apollo 17's lunar module Challenger was designed for flight in the vacuum of space. This picture from command module America, shows Challenger's ascent stage in lunar orbit. Small reaction control thrusters are at the sides of the moonship with the bell of the ascent rocket engine underneath. The hatch allowing access to the lunar surface is seen at the front, with a round radar antenna at the top. Mission commander Gene Cernan is just visible through the dark, triangular window. This spaceship performed gracefully, landing on the Moon and returning the Apollo astronauts to the orbiting command module in December of 1972. So where is Challenger now? Its descent stage remains at the Apollo 17 landing site, Taurus-Littrow. The ascent stage was intentionally crashed nearby after being jettisoned from the command module prior to the astronauts' return to planet Earth. Apollo 17's mission was the sixth and last time astronauts have landed on the Moon.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0601/as17-149-22859HR.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Apollo 17's Moonship",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0601/as17-149-22859c41.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "NASAJPL-CaltechMITGSFCSVS",
		"date": "2013-03-19",
		"explanation": "How did the Moon form? To help find out, NASA launched the twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) satellites in 2011 to orbit and map the Moon's surface gravity in unprecedented detail. Pictured above is a resulting GRAIL gravity map, with regions of slightly lighter gravity shown in blue and regions of slightly stronger gravity shown in red. Analysis of GRAIL data indicates that the moon has an unexpectedly shallow crust than runs about 40 kilometers deep, and an overall composition similar to the Earth. Although other surprising structures have been discovered that will continue to be investigated, the results generally bolster the hypothesis that the Moon formed mostly from Earth material following a tremendous collision in the early years of our Solar System, about 4.5 billion years ago. After completing their mission and running low on fuel, the two GRAIL satellites, Ebb and Flow, were crashed into a lunar mountain at about 6,000 kilometer per hour.   Growing Gallery: Comet PanSTARRS at Sunset",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1303/moon_grail_2400.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "GRAIL Maps the Moon's Gravity",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1303/moon_grail_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2007-04-21",
		"explanation": "Get out your red/blue glasses and gaze down on this weathered mesa on Mars. Of course, described as a rock formation that resembles a human head in a 1976 NASA press release, this mesa is also famous as the Face on Mars. The sharp stereo image was created by combining high resolution pictures from cameras on two different spacecraft in Mars orbit - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global surveyor. It shows rugged details of the approximately 2 kilometer wide, isolated hill - similar to mesa landforms on planet Earth - rising some 240 meters above the plains of the martian Cydonia region. This remarkable 3D view exaggerates the hill's vertical dimensions.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/MRO-GS-vantuyne.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "3D Face on Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/MRO-GS-vantuyne720.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "NASAUSGSApollo 15 Crew",
		"date": "2018-11-11",
		"explanation": "What would it be like to explore the Moon? NASA's Apollo missions gave humans just this chance in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  In particular, the Apollo 15 mission 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 in this digitally stitched mosaic panorama, David Scott, exploring his surroundings,  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.  In the future, NASA and other space agencies plan to continue to lead humanity's exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1811/hillpan_apollo15_4000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Astronaut Exploring: An Apollo 15 Panorama",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1811/hillpan_apollo15_4000.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Daniel López",
		"date": "2010-03-20",
		"explanation": "Ghostly Zodiacal light, featured near the center of this remarkable panorama, is produced as sunlight is scattered by dust in the Solar System's ecliptic plane. In the weeks surrounding the March equinox (today at 1732 UT) Zodiacal light is more prominent after sunset in the northern hemisphere, and before sunrise in the south, when the ecliptic makes a steep angle with the horizon. In the picture, the narrow triangle of Zodiacal light extends above the western horizon and seems to end at the lovely Pleiades star cluster. Arcing above the Pleiades are stars and nebulae along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Recorded on March 10 from Teide National Park on the island of Tenerife, the vista is composed of 4 separate pictures spanning over 180 degrees.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1003/01_zodiacal_lactea_DLopez.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Zodiacal Light Vs. Milky Way",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1003/01_zodiacal_lactea_DLopez600h.jpg"
	},
	{
	  "date": "2006-09-25",
    "explanation": "Wouldn't it be fun if clouds were turtles?  Wouldn't it be fun if the laundry on the bedroom chair was a friendly  monster?  Wouldn't it be fun if rock mesas on Mars were faces or interplanetary monuments?  Clouds, though, are small water droplets, floating on air.  Laundry is cotton, wool, or plastic, woven into garments.  Famous Martian rock mesas known by names like the Face on Mars appear quite natural when seen more clearly, as the above recently-released digital-perspective image shows.  Is reality boring?  Nobody knows how clouds make lightning.  Nobody knows the geological history of Mars.  Nobody knows why the laundry on the bedroom chair smells like root beer.   Understanding reality brings more questions.  Mystery and adventure are never far behind.  Perhaps fun and  discovery are  just beginning.",
    "hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0609/face2_marsexpress_big.jpg",
    "media_type": "image",
    "service_version": "v1",
    "title": "Mars Express Close-Up of the Face on Mars",
    "url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0609/face2_marsexpress.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Ken Crawford",
		"date": "2010-07-23",
		"explanation": "\"Nebula at the right foot of Andromeda ... \" begins the description for the 76th object in Charles Messier's 18th century Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters. In fact, M76 is one of the fainter objects on the Messier list and is also known by the popular name of the \"Little Dumbbell Nebula\". Like its brighter namesake M27 (the Dumbbell Nebula), M76 is recognized as a planetary nebula - a gaseous shroud cast off by a dying sunlike star. The nebula itself is thought to be shaped more like a donut, while the box-like appearance of its brighter central region is due to our nearly edge-on view. Gas expanding more rapidly away from the donut hole produces the fainter loops of far flung material. The fainter material is emphasized in this composite image, highlighted by showing emission from hydrogen atoms in orange and oxygen atoms in complementary blue hues. The nebula's dying star can be picked out in the sharp false-color image as the blue-tinted star near the center of the box-like shape.  Distance estimates place M76 about 3 to 5 thousand light-years away, making the nebula over a light-year in diameter.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1007/M76_150crawford.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Messier 76",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1007/M76_150crawford900c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2020-04-12",
		"explanation": "While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape.  Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is embedded in the vast and complex Orion Nebula (M42).  A potentially rewarding but difficult object to view personally with a small telescope, the above gorgeously detailed image was taken in 2013 in infrared light by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in honor of the 23rd anniversary of Hubble's launch. The dark molecular cloud, roughly 1,500 light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is seen above primarily because it is backlit by the nearby massive star Sigma Orionis. The Horsehead Nebula will slowly shift its apparent shape over the next few million years and will eventually be destroyed by the high energy starlight.   April:  (AWB's) Global Astronomy Month",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2004/horseheadir_hubble_1225.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Horsehead Nebula in Infrared from Hubble",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2004/horseheadir_hubble_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-10-15",
		"explanation": "A cold wind blows from the central star of the Boomerang Nebula. Seen here in a false color image of dust reflected starlight, the nebula lies about 5,000 light-years away. The boomerang shaped cloud appears to have been created by a high-speed wind of gas and dust blowing from an aging central star at speeds of over 300,000 miles per hour. This rapid expansion has cooled the nebular gas to about -458 degrees Fahrenheit or 1 degree above absolute zero, making it the coldest region observed in the distant Universe. The frigid Boomerang nebula represents a unique object for astronomers and is believed to be a star or stellar system evolving toward the planetary nebula phase.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9710/boomerang_sahai_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Cold Wind From The Boomerang Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9710/boomerang_sahai.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Max Rive",
		"date": "2017-12-10",
		"explanation": "Raise your arms if you see an aurora. With those instructions, two nights went by with, well, clouds -- mostly. On the third night of returning to same peaks, though, the sky not only cleared up but lit up with a spectacular auroral display. Arms went high in the air, patience and experience paid off, and the creative featured image was captured as a composite from three separate exposures. The setting is a summit of the Austnesfjorden fjord close to the town of Svolvear on the Lofoten islands in northern Norway. The time was early 2014. Although our Sun is nearing Solar Minimum and hence showing relatively little surface activity, holes in the upper corona have provided some nice auroral displays over the last few months.   Follow APOD on: Facebook,  Google Plus,  Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1712/greencompany_rive_2916.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "In Green Company: Aurora over Norway",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1712/greencompany_rive_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-08-28",
		"explanation": "What's causing a huge jet to emanate from the center of galaxy M87? Although the unusual jet was first noticed early in the twentieth century, the exact cause is still debated.  The above picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998 shows clear details, however. The most popular hypothesis holds that the jet is created by energetic gas swirling around a massive black hole at the galaxy's center.  The result is a 5000 light-year long blowtorch where electrons are ejected outward at near light-speed, emitting eerily blue light during a magnetic spiral.  M87 is a giant elliptical galaxy residing only 50 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies.  The faint dots of light surrounding M87's center are large ancient globular clusters of stars.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1108/m87jet_hst_1222.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Jet from Galaxy M87",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1108/m87jet_hst_900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Dieter Willasch",
		"date": "2013-05-31",
		"explanation": "The Eagle Nebula and the Swan Nebula span this broad starscape, a telescopic view of the Sagittarius spiral arm toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Eagle, also known as M16, is left, above center, and the Swan, or M17 at the lower right. The deep, wide-field image shows the cosmic clouds as brighter regions of active star-formation. They lie along the spiral arm suffused with reddish emission charactistic of atomic hydrogen gas, and dusty dark nebulae. In fact, the center of both nebulae are locations of well-known close-up images of star formation from the Hubble Space Telescope. M17, also called the Omega Nebula, is about 5500 light-years away, while M16 is some 6500 light-years distant. In the frame that covers 3 degrees across the sky, the extended wings of the Eagle Nebula are spread over 120 light-years.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1305/M16_17-DW.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Eagle and The Swan",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1305/M16_17-DW950.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Mohammad Rahimi",
		"date": "2007-02-19",
		"explanation": "A bright new nova is being studied by astronomers.  The officially dubbed Nova Scorpii 2007 has become so bright in recent days that it is now visible to the unaided eye.   Adventurous early morning sky enthusiasts should look in dark skies toward the constellation of the Scorpion, just below Jupiter and Antares.  The above image may help as a sky chart.   A nova this bright occurs only every few years.  Novas are caused by thermonuclear explosions casting off the outer layers of a white dwarf star.   Pictured above on Friday, the nova was being studied through a small telescope as it appeared over the Varzaneh Desert in Isfahan, Iran. The nova will likely fade but remain visible with binoculars for at least a few more days.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/nova_rahimi_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Nova Over Iran",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/nova_rahimi.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1998-01-21",
		"explanation": "What's black & white and red all over?  Add our universe to this list.  Adrift in a vast sea of darkness are not only familiar bright stars but dust that glows predominantly in far-infrared light.  This cosmological dust was recently discovered in data taken previously by the COBE satellite, and visible as a diffuse glow visible in the above image.  The amount of dust in the universe is important because it is a measure of the number of stars that created it, of the number of stars that are cloaked by it, and of the amount of distortion created in measurements of the distant universe.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9801/dustsky_cobe_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Our Dusty Universe",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9801/dustsky_cobe.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "St�phane GuisardTWAN",
		"date": "2019-04-07",
		"explanation": "If Scorpius looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better.  Scorpius more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well-known but rarely pointed out zodiacal constellation. To get a spectacular image like this, though, one needs a good camera, color filters, and a digital image processor.  To bring out detail, the featured image not only involved long duration exposures taken in several colors, but one exposure in a very specific red color emitted by hydrogen.  The resulting image shows many breathtaking features.  Vertically across the image left is part of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy.   Visible there are vast clouds of bright stars and long filaments of dark dust.  Jutting out diagonally from the Milky Way in the image center are dark dust bands known as the Dark River.  This river connects to several bright stars on the right that are part of Scorpius' head and claws, and include the bright star Antares.  Above and right of Antares is an even brighter planet: Jupiter. Numerous red emission nebulas and blue reflection nebulas are visible throughout the image. Scorpius appears prominently in southern skies after sunset during the middle of the year.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1904/scorpio_guisard_1328.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Scorpius Sky Spectacular",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1904/scorpio_guisard_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Royal Observatory, EdinburghAnglo-Australian \nObservatory",
		"date": "1996-09-03",
		"explanation": "It is the most famous star cluster on the sky. The Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city.  Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains over 3000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Quite evident in the above photograph is the blue reflection nebula that surrounds the bright cluster stars. Low mass, faint, brown dwarfs have recently been found in the Pleiades.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/pleiades_uks.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Pleiades Star Cluster",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/pleiades_uks_big.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Rick Scott",
		"date": "2005-07-07",
		"explanation": "Stars gracefully arc over the glow from a not too distant forest fire in this dramatic time exposure. A recent camping trip with family and friends to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, near Flagstaff, Arizona, USA produced the opportunity to record the subtle lighting from Earth and sky.  Pointed south with the shutter held open for five minutes, camera and tripod were fixed to planet Earth, producing the gently curving, concentric star trails - a reflection of the planet's daily rotation about its axis. Rising beyond the forest fire's glow is the slope of Sunset Crater, a cinder cone produced by volcanic eruptions some 900 years ago.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0507/fireglowstartrails_scott_f.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Fire Glow and Star Trails at Sunset Crater",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0507/fireglowstartrails_scott_c55.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Eric Coles",
		"date": "2017-05-03",
		"explanation": "No, hamburgers are not this big. What is pictured is a sharp telescopic view of a magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628, a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep galactic portrait puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy. The tantalizing island universe is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo. NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local Universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1705/NGC3628_Coles_3463.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 3628: The Hamburger Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1705/NGC3628_Coles_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "GAAC",
		"date": "2016-07-09",
		"explanation": "Bright noctilucent or night shining clouds are not familiar sights from northern France. But these electric-blue waves coursed through skies over the small town of Wancourt in Pas-de-Calais on July 6, just before the dawn. From the edge of space, about 80 kilometers above Earth's surface, the icy clouds still reflect sunlight even though the Sun itself is below the horizon as seen from the ground. Usually spotted at high latitudes in summer months the diaphanous apparitions are also known as polar mesospheric clouds. The seasonal clouds are understood to form as water vapor driven into the cold upper atmosphere condenses on the fine dust particles supplied by disintegrating meteors or volcanic ash. NASA's AIM mission provides projections of the noctilucent clouds as seen from space.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1607/Lericque-Simon-nlc06072016-3-ok_1467777140.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Noctilucent Clouds Tour France",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1607/Lericque-Simon-nlc06072016-3-ok_1467777140_1152c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-04-19",
		"explanation": "This ROSAT image of the Virgo cluster of galaxies reveals a hot X-ray emitting plasma or gas with a temperature of 10-100 million degrees pervading the cluster. False colors have been used to represent the intensity of X-ray emission. The large area of X-ray emission, just below and left of center, is about 1 million light-years across. The giant elliptical galaxy M87, the biggest member of the cluster, is centered in that area while other cluster members are scattered around it. By adding up the amount of X-ray emitting gas astronomers have found that its total mass is up to 5 times the total mass of the cluster galaxies themselves - yet all this matter still does not produce nearly enough gravity to keep the cluster from flying apart! Where is the unseen mass? Because galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe, this mysterious Dark Matter must dominate the cosmos but its nature is still an open question.   Information: The Scale of the Universe Debate in April 1996",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/virgo_rosat.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Virgo Cluster: Hot Plasma and Dark Matter",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/virgo_rosat.gif"
	},

	{
		"copyright": "Anglo-Australian Telescope\nBoard",
		"date": "1996-08-26",
		"explanation": "What's a Wolf-Rayet star, and how did it create that spherical bubble and sweeping arc? A Wolf-Rayet star is a star that originated with a mass over 40 times that of our Sun. An extremely hot, luminous star, it has since expelled shells of material through its strong stellar wind which could account for the bubble shaped nebula that surrounds it. But astronomers are unsure how the central Wolf-Rayet created both the bubble and the arc seen above, and even whether it acted alone in doing so. Together, this bubble and the arc are known as NGC 2359.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/ngc2359_aat.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Wolf-Rayet Star Bubble",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/ngc2359_aat.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Heidi Schweiker",
		"date": "2004-03-31",
		"explanation": "Lying just at the limit of human perception is a picturesque starfield containing one of the larger open clusters on the northern sky.  Spanning an angle larger than the Moon, M39's relatively few stars lie only about 800 light years distant toward the constellation of Cygnus.  The above picture of M39 is a mosaic of 33 images taken by the WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona, USA.  The stars in M39 are all about 300 million years old, much younger than the 5000 million years of our Sun.  Open clusters, also called galactic clusters, contain fewer and younger stars than globular clusters.  Also unlike globular clusters, open clusters are generally confined to the plane of our Galaxy.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0403/m39_noao_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "M39: Open Cluster in Cygnus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0403/m39_noao.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-01-23",
		"explanation": "Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center? Spiral galaxy NGC 1398 not only has a ring of pearly stars, gas and dust around its center, but a bar of stars and gas across its center, and spiral arms that appear like ribbons farther out.  The featured image was taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile and resolves this grand spiral in impressive detail. NGC 1398 lies about 65 million light years distant, meaning the light we see today left this galaxy when dinosaurs were disappearing from the Earth.  The photogenic galaxy is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Furnace (Fornax). The ring near the center is likely an expanding density wave of star formation, caused either by a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, or by the galaxy's own gravitational asymmetries.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1801/NGC1398_ESO_3416.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Ribbons and Pearls of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1398",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1801/NGC1398_ESO_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1999-01-14",
		"explanation": "The Massachusetts-based firm of Alvan Clark and Sons became famous for making telescope optics near the end of the last century. Near the end of this century, major astronomical observatories still boast of telescopes with lenses and mirrors made by them including Lowell Observatory's 24 inch diameter refractor, the United States Naval Observatory's 26 inch refractor, the McCormick Observatory's 26 inch, Lick Observatory's 36 inch, and Yerkes Observatory's 40 inch refractor - the largest refracting telescope in the world. Small observatories too can claim such a link to telescopic history and many offer the general public a chance to \"look through a classic\". This gorgeous, completely refurbished 8 inch refractor was originally bought from Alvan Clark and Sons in 1927. On Thursdays it stargazes from the Crosby Ramsey Memorial Observatory dome atop the Maryland Science Center near Baltimore's Inner Harbor.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9901/crm_observatory_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Crosby Ramsey Memorial Observatory Refractor",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9901/crm_observatory.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "IoP Lithuania",
		"date": "2004-11-10",
		"explanation": "Why isn't this small galaxy simple?  The above image and contemporary observations of small nearby galaxy Leo A were supposed to show it has a simple structure.  Now Leo A is known to be a dwarf irregular galaxy - one of the most common types of galaxies in the universe and a type that is likely a building block of more massive galaxy like our Milky Way Galaxy.  In general, larger galaxies have recently been shown to continually eat, and be primarily composed of, many of the smaller satellite galaxies that have surrounded them.  Leo A's surprising complexity indicates that that it, and possibly many small galaxies, have formation histories nearly as complex as large galaxies.  Leo A spans about 10,000 light years and lies about 2.5 million light years away toward the constellation of Leo.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0411/leoA_subaru_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Leo A: Nearby Dwarf Irregular Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0411/leoA_subaru.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-01-25",
		"explanation": "This carrot shaped track is actually little more than 5 hundredths of an inch long. It is the trail of a meteroid through a gel exposed to space in low earth orbit by the shuttle launched EURECA (European Recoverable Carrier) spacecraft. The meteoroid itself, about a thousandth of an inch in diameter, is visible where it came to rest, just beyond the tip of the carrot (far right). Chemical analyses of interplanetary dust particles similar to this one suggest that some of them may be bits of comets and represent samples of material from the early stages of the formation of the Solar System. NASA's Stardust mission, planned for launch in 1999, will attempt to directly collect dust from the tail of a comet and return it to Earth.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/dusttrk_stardust.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Catching Falling Stardust",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/dusttrk-l_sm.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-05-17",
		"explanation": "Three major sources contribute to the far-infrared sky: our Solar System, our Galaxy, and our Universe.  The above recently released image, in representative colors, is the highest resolution projection yet created of the entire far-infrared sky (60 - 240 microns) created from years of observations by the now-defunct robot spacecraft COBE.  Our Solar System is evidenced most prominently by the S-shaped blue sash called zodiacal light, created by small pieces of rock and dust orbiting between the Sun and Jupiter.  The disk of our Galaxy is evidenced most prominently by the thin band of light-emitting dust that crosses the middle of the image.  Clouds and filaments of dust in our Milky Way also make intricate patterns pervading most of the sky.  Close inspection of similar images reveal that the background is not completely dark, indicating that our Universe itself provides a diffuse glow, created by dust left over from the star formation throughout the Universe.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0005/fir_cobe_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Far Infrared Sky",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0005/fir_cobe.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2005-10-30",
		"explanation": "It was a dark and stormy night. But on 2003 August 29th the red planet Mars, near its closest approach to Earth in almost 60,000 years, shone brightly in the sky against a background of stars in the constellation Aquarius. In the foreground of this scary view, huge thunder clouds are lit by lightning strokes from within. Mars, of course, has nothing to do with storms on Earth, though both have the power to excite the imagination and wonder of Earthdwellers. Tonight, the night before Halloween, Mars will also pass close to the Earth, closer than it will come during the next thirteen years.  And once again, the red planet Mars will look particularly bright, although much smaller and dimmer than the Moon and even Venus.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0510/marsflashb_allthesky_full.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Dark and Stormy Night",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0510/marsflashb_allthesky.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-07-12",
		"explanation": "Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun - make it an excellent candidate for a full blown supernova. Historical records do show that about 150 years ago Eta Carinae underwent an unusual outburst that made it one of the brightest stars in the southern sky.  Eta Carinae, in the Keyhole Nebula, is the only star currently thought to emit natural LASER light. This image, taken last September, resulted from sophisticated image-processing procedures designed to bring out new details in the unusual nebula that surrounds this rogue star. Now clearly visible are two distinct lobes, a hot central region, and strange radial streaks. The lobes are filled with lanes of gas and dust which absorb the blue and ultraviolet light emitted near the center. The streaks remain unexplained. Will these clues tell us how the nebula was formed?  Will they better indicate when Eta Carinae will explode?",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/etacarinae_hst2_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Doomed Star Eta Carinae",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/etacarinae_hst2.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2001-10-07",
		"explanation": "Gravity can bend light, allowing huge clusters of galaxies to act as telescopes.  Almost all of the bright objects in this released Hubble Space Telescope image are galaxies in the cluster known as Abell 2218.  The cluster is so massive and so compact that its gravity bends and focuses the light from galaxies that lie behind it.  As a result, multiple images of these background galaxies are distorted into long faint arcs - a simple lensing effect analogous to viewing distant street lamps through a glass of wine.  The cluster of galaxies Abell 2218 is itself about three billion light-years away in the northern constellation Draco. The power of this massive cluster telescope has recently allowed astronomers to detect a galaxy at redshift 5.58, the most distant galaxy yet measured.  This young, still-maturing galaxy is faintly visible to the lower right of the cluster core.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0110/a2218c_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Abell 2218: A Galaxy Cluster Lens",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0110/a2218c_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-05-16",
		"explanation": "On May 1, Comet Hyakutake made its closest approach to the Sun. During this time it was not possible to view the comet with most astronomical instruments because of the brightness of the nearby Sun. But the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft contains telescopes meant to look directly at the Sun and so were able to track the comet during this crucial time.  This picture, taken May 2, shows the tails of Comet Hyakutake pointing away from the Sun, as expected. During its closest approach, Comet Hyakutake passed inside the orbit of Mercury. Comet Hyakutake will not return to the inner Solar System for another 14,000 years.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/hyakutake_soho.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Comet Hyakutake Passes the Sun",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/hyakutake_soho.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2015-08-05",
		"explanation": "Circinus X-1 is an X-ray binary star known for its erratic variability. In the bizarre Circinus X-1 system, a dense neutron star, the collapsed remnant of a supernova explosion, orbits with a more ordinary stellar companion. Observations of the X-ray binary in months following an intense X-ray flare from the source in 2013 progressively revealed striking concentric rings - bright X-ray light echoes from four intervening clouds of interstellar dust. In this X-ray/optical composite, the swaths of Chandra Observatory X-ray image data showing partial outlines of the rings are in false colors. Remarkably, timing the X-ray echoes, along with known distances to the interstellar dust clouds, determines the formerly highly uncertain distance to Circinus X-1 itself to be 30,700 light-years.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1507/cirx1_lg.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "X-ray Echoes from Circinus X-1",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1507/cirx1_chandra864.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Andrea Tamanti",
		"date": "2006-10-19",
		"explanation": "This cosmic portrait recorded October 9th features the lovely blue-green coma of Comet SWAN posing with spiral galaxy NGC 5005 in the northern constellation Canes Venatici. At the time the comet (center) was in the close foreground, a mere 9 light-minutes from planet Earth, with the galaxy a more substantial 60 million light-years distant. Not actually related to a bird, Comet SWAN (C/2006 M4) was so named as it was first spotted in image data from the SWAN (Solar Wind ANisotropies) camera aboard the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft. Having rounded the Sun, this comet is headed for interstellar space, but first it will make its closest approach to Earth on October 24. With binoculars, northern hemisphere observers can now spot the comet above the northwestern horizon, near the handle of the Big Dipper in the early evening sky.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0610/SWAN_tamanti_f.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "SWAN Meets Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0610/SWAN_tamanti_c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-04-01",
		"explanation": "The Television InfraRed Observational Satellite (TIROS) 1 was the first weather satellite. Launched into a polar orbit 40 years ago (April 1, 1960) equipped with two TV cameras, TIROS 1 was operational for only 78 days but demonstrated the feasibility of monitoring planet Earth's cloud cover and weather patterns from space. TIROS satellites eventually began continuous coverage in 1962 and enabled accurate worldwide weather forecasts and alerts. Above is the first TIROS TV image, taken from an altitude of about 700 kilometers. Crude by contemporary standards, it represents the beginning of what is still one of the most important continuing applications of space technology.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0004/first_tiros1_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Planet Earth from TIROS 1: First TV Image",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0004/first_tiros1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "S. Kafka",
		"date": "2003-09-15",
		"explanation": "This huge ball of stars predates our Sun.  Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy.  Of the 200 or so globular clusters that survive today, M3 is one of the largest and brightest, easily visible in the Northern hemisphere with binoculars.  M3 contains about half a million stars, most of which are old and red.  Light takes about 100,000 years to reach us from M3, which spans about 150 light years.  The above picture is a composite of blue and red images.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0309/m3_noao_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Globular Cluster M3",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0309/m3_noao.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2014-10-12",
		"explanation": "How did a star create the Helix nebula?  The shapes of planetary nebula like the Helix are important because they likely hold clues to how stars like the Sun end their lives.  Observations by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and the 4-meter Blanco Telescope in Chile, however, have shown the Helix is not really a simple helix.  Rather, it incorporates two nearly perpendicular disks as well as arcs, shocks, and even features not well understood.  Even so, many strikingly geometric symmetries remain.  How a single Sun-like star created such beautiful yet geometric complexity is a topic of research.  The Helix Nebula is the nearest planetary nebula to Earth, lies only about 700 light years away toward the constellation of Aquarius, and spans about 3 light-years.    APOD Wall Calendar: Nebulas and Star Clusters",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1410/helix_blancoHubble_6145.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Helix Nebula from Blanco and Hubble",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1410/helix_blancoHubble_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2012-07-02",
		"explanation": "What wonders lie at the center of our Galaxy? In Jules Verne's science fiction classic A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Professor Liedenbrock and his fellow explorers encounter many strange and exciting wonders. Astronomers already know of some of the bizarre objects that exist at our Galactic center, including like vast cosmic dust clouds, bright star clusters, swirling rings of gas, and even a supermassive black hole. Much of the Galactic Center is shielded from our view in visible light by the intervening dust and gas, but it can be explored using other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The above video is actually a digital zoom into the Milky Way's center which starts by utilizing visible light images from the Digitized Sky Survey. As the movie proceeds, the light shown shifts to dust-penetrating infrared and highlights gas clouds that were recently discovered to be falling toward central black hole.   Poll: When I couldn't find APOD online I thought that . . .  Note: APOD back after unexpected power outage",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Journey to the Center of the Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9908/garradd_cassini_1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2015-08-15",
		"explanation": "This dramatic outburst from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko occured on August 12, just hours before perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun. Completing an orbit of the Sun once every 6.45 years, perihelion distance for this periodic comet is about 1.3 astronomical units (AU), still outside the orbit of planet Earth (at 1 AU). The stark image of the 4 kilometer wide, double-lobed nucleus in bright sunlight and dark shadows was taken by the Rosetta spacecraft's science camera about 325 kilometers away. Too close to see the comet's growing tail, Rosetta maintains its ringside seat to watch the nucleus warm and become more active in coming weeks, as primordial ices sublimating from the surface produce jets of gas and dust. Of course, dust from the nucleus of periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, whose last perihelion passage was in 1992 at a distance of 0.96 AU, fell to Earth just this week.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1508/ESA_Rosetta_OSIRIS_NAC_20150812_T1735.png",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Perihelion Approaches",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1508/ESA_Rosetta_OSIRIS_NAC_20150812_T1735c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2016-02-12",
		"explanation": "Just press play to watch two black holes merge. Inspired by the first direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO, this simulation video plays in slow motion but would take about one third of a second if run in real time. Set on a cosmic stage the black holes are posed in front of stars, gas, and dust. Their extreme gravity lenses the light from behind them into Einstein rings as they spiral closer and finally merge into one. The otherwise invisible gravitational waves generated as the massive objects rapidly coalesce cause the visible image to ripple and slosh both inside and outside the Einstein rings even after the black holes have merged. Dubbed GW150914, the gravitational waves detected by LIGO are consistent with the merger of 36 and 29 solar mass black holes at a distance of 1.3 billion light-years. The final, single black hole has 62 times the mass of the Sun, with the remaining 3 solar masses converted into energy in gravitational waves.",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Two Black Holes Merge",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1202/Stephans5_Kelly900c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Adam Block",
		"date": "2011-03-26",
		"explanation": "The yellowish star near center in this remarkable telescopic skyview is T Tauri, prototype of the class of T Tauri variable stars. Nearby it is a dusty yellow cosmic cloud historically known as Hind's Variable Nebula (NGC 1555). Over 400 light-years away, at the edge of a molecular cloud, both star and nebula are seen to vary significantly in brightness but not necessarily at the same time, adding to the mystery of the intriguing region. T Tauri stars are now generally recognized as young (less than a few million years old), sun-like stars still in the early stages of formation. To further complicate the picture, infrared observations indicate that T Tauri itself is part of a multiple system and suggest that the associated Hind's Nebula may also contain a very young stellar object. The naturally colored image spans about 4 light-years at the estimated distance of T Tauri.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1103/n1555block.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "T Tauri and Hind's Variable Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1103/n1555block900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2009-07-20",
		"explanation": "A human first set foot on another world on July 20, 1969.  This world was Earth's own Moon.  In honor of today's 40th anniversary, NASA has released a digitally restored video of this milestone in human history.  Pictured above is Neil Armstrong preparing to take the historic first step. On the way down the Lunar Module ladder, Armstrong released equipment which included the television camera that recorded this fuzzy image.  Pictures and voice transmissions were broadcast live to a world wide audience estimated at one fifth of the world's population.  The Apollo Moon landings have since been described as the greatest technological achievement the world has known.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090720.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0907/smallstep_nasa_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Apollo 11: Onto a New World",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0907/smallstep_nasa.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Juan Carlos CasadoTWANEarth and Stars",
		"date": "2013-12-17",
		"explanation": "On some nights it rains meteors. Peaking two nights ago, asteroid dust streaked through the dark skies of Earth, showering down during the annual Geminids meteor shower. Astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado captured the space weather event, as pictured above, in a series of exposures spanning about 2.3 hours using a wide angle lens. The snowcapped Teide volcano of the Canary Islands of Spain towers in the foreground, while the picturesque constellation of Orion highlights the background. The star appearing just near the top of the volcano is Rigel. Although the asteroid dust particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting meteor streaks appear to radiate from a single point on the sky, in this case in the constellation of Gemini, off the top of the image.  Like train tracks appearing to converge in the distance, the meteor radiant effect is due to perspective. The astrophotographer has estimated that there are about 50 Geminids visible in the above composite image -- how many do you see?    Budget Universe: Free APOD 2014 Calendar in PDF format",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1312/geminds2013_jcc_1500.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Geminid Meteors over Teide Volcano",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1312/geminds2013_jcc_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-12-08",
		"explanation": "Like the Earth's Moon, Mercury is scarred with craters, testifying to an intense bombardment during the early history of the Solar System. In 1974, the Mariner 10 spacecraft surveyed this innermost planet up close, producing the only detailed images of its tortured surface. In the above mosaic the bright rays emanating from the 27 mile wide Degas crater almost appear to be painted on. The rays consist of light colored material blasted out during the crater's formation. Numerous smaller, younger craters are seen superposed on the Degas crater itself.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9612/degas_merc_mar10_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Degas Ray Crater on Mercury\r\nCredit:",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9612/degas_merc_mar10.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2002-08-04",
		"explanation": "NGC 2997 is a grand design spiral galaxy.  Its small nucleus and sprawling spiral arms give it a type Sc designation.  NGC 2997, pictured above, is speeding away from us at about 1100 kilometers per second, which would place it at about 55 million light years distant, given current estimates of the expansion rate of our universe.  NGC 2997 is thought to have a mass of about 100 billion times that of our Sun, but is probably less massive than our own Milky Way galaxy.  NGC 2997 is not seen face-on - it is thought tilted by about 45 degrees.  NGC 2997 is particularly notable for a nucleus surrounded by a chain of hot giant clouds of ionized hydrogen.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0208/ngc2997_vlt_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Spiral Galaxy NGC 2997 from VLT",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0208/ngc2997_vlt.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Alex Cherney Music:",
		"date": "2011-07-04",
		"explanation": "Clouds and sky both show illuminating changes during this time lapse video from the south of Australia. In the foreground are scenes visible over a rocky coastline toward the Southern Ocean. Dark clouds flow across the sky, sometimes from different directions, sometimes blocking background starlight, but other times causing stars to appear to flare as they move in front. In the first sequence, looking toward the southwest, a nearly vertical band of zodiacal light is seen at sunset just before the band of the Milky Way Galaxy appears to settle into the sea.  Soon the unusual dark patch of the Coal Sack Nebula can be seen on the Milky Way band, near the famous Southern Cross. Later, looking toward the southeast at about 2:10 in the video, Orion can be seen rising appearing nearly perpendicular to  how it rises in northern skies. The composite video, winner of an award STARMUS astrophotography competition, took over a year to compile in 2009 and 2010 from over 30 hours of exposure.   Mini-mystery: what are those lights moving along the horizon?",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Southern Ocean Sky",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1911/NGC3572SouthernTadpoles_Drudis.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Bryan Goff",
		"date": "2020-07-06",
		"explanation": "Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Orion Nebula Arguably the most famous of all astronomy nebulas, the Great Nebula in Orion is an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away.  In the featured deep image shown in assigned colors, the part of the nebula's center known as M43 is shown as taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion.  The entire Orion Nebula, including both M42 and M43 spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2007/M43_HubbleGoff_4000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "M43: Dust, Gas, and Stars in the Orion Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2007/M43_HubbleGoff_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert Gendler",
		"date": "2018-01-16",
		"explanation": "With image data from telescopes large and small, this close-up features the dusty Elephant's Trunk Nebula. It winds through the emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Also known as vdB 142, the cosmic elephant's trunk is over 20 light-years long. The colorful view highlights bright, swept-back ridges that outline the region's pockets of cool interstellar dust and gas. Such embedded, dark, tendril-shaped clouds contain the raw material for star formation and hide protostars within. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees. This dramatic scene spans a 1 degree wide field, about the size of 2 Full Moons.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1801/VDB142-ESO-L.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "An Elephant's Trunk in Cepheus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1801/VDB142-ESO-1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1995-11-03",
		"explanation": "Amalthea is Jupiter's fifth largest moon, much smaller than the four Galilean satellites Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The orbit of Amalthea is inside of these moons, and with its long axis always pointing toward Jupiter. It's dark surface color is probably due to sulfur being expelled from Io. Amalthea is not massive enough for its internal gravity to make it spherical. Amalthea was discovered in 1892 by Edward Barnard.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/amalthea_vg1.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Jupiter's Moon Amalthea",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/amalthea_vg1.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2017-04-30",
		"explanation": "This is what Saturn looks like from inside the rings. Last week, for the first time, NASA directed the Cassini spacecraft to swoop between Saturn and its rings. During the dive, the robotic spacecraft took hundreds of images showing unprecedented detail for structures in Saturn's atmosphere. Looking back out, however, the spacecraft was also able to capture impressive vistas. In the featured image taken a few hours before closest approach, Saturn's unusual northern hexagon is seen surrounding the North Pole. Saturn's B ring is the closest visible, while the dark Cassini Division separates B from the outer A.  A close inspection will find the two small moons that shepherd the F-ring, the farthest ring discernable.  This image is raw and will be officially verified, calibrated and released at a later date.  Cassini remains on schedule to end its mission by plunging into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1704/SaturnInsideOut2_cassini_960.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Cassini Looks Out from Saturn",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1704/SaturnInsideOut2_cassini_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1999-10-22",
		"explanation": "Tomorrow's picture: Not A Comet  < Archive | Index | Search | Calendar | Glossary | Education | About APOD >  Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9910/Iridium52_jyoung.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Iridium 52: Not A Meteor",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9910/Iridium52_jyoung2.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2013-11-13",
		"explanation": "In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn drifted in giant planet's shadow earlier this year and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun.  Cassini saw a unique and celebrated view.  First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system.  Next, Saturn's expansive ring system appears as majestic as always even from this odd angle. Ring particles, many glowing only as irregular crescents, slightly scatter sunlight toward Cassini in this natural color image. Several moons and ring features are also discernible.  Appearing quite prominently is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the unusual  ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus and the outermost ring visible above.  To the upper left, far in the distance, are the planets Mars and Venus. To the lower right, however, is perhaps the most wondrous spectacle of all: the almost invisible, nearly ignorable,  pale blue dot of Earth.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1311/saturnshadow2_cassini_annotated_9000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "In the Shadow of Saturn",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1311/saturnshadow2_cassini_annotated_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2006-05-30",
		"explanation": "Saturn's ragged moon Rhea has one of the oldest surfaces known.  Estimated as changing little in the past billion years, Rhea shows craters so old they no longer appear round � their edges have become compromised by more recent cratering.   Like Earth's Moon, Rhea's rotation is locked on Saturn, and the above image shows part of Rhea's surface that always faces Saturn.  Rhea's leading surface is more highly cratered than its trailing surface.   Rhea is composed mostly of water-ice but is thought to have a small rocky core.  The above image was taken by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn.   Cassini swooped past Rhea two months ago and captured the above image from about 100,000 kilometers away.  Rhea spans 1,500 kilometers making it Saturn's second largest moon after Titan.  Several surface features on Rhea remain unexplained including large light patches.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0605/rhea3_cassini_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Ancient Craters on Saturn's Rhea",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0605/rhea3_cassini.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Yudong Jiang",
		"date": "2018-12-04",
		"explanation": "What's happening between those mountains? A rocket is being launched to space. Specifically, a Long March 3B Carrier Rocket was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province in China about two week ago.  The rocket lifted two navigation satellites to about 2,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, well above the orbit of the International Space Station, but well below the orbit of geostationary satellites.  China's Chang'e 3 mission that landed the robotic Yutu rover on the Moon was launched from Xichang in 2013.  The featured image was taken about 10 kilometers from the launch site and is actually a composite of nine exposures, including a separate background image.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1812/RocketLaunch_Jiang_4199.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Rocket Launch between Mountains",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1812/RocketLaunch_Jiang_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-02-18",
		"explanation": "Stars can make waves in the Orion Nebula's sea of gas and dust.  This esthetic close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds features LL Orionis, interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. Adrift in Orion's stellar nursery and still in its formative years, variable star LL Orionis produces a wind more energetic than the wind from our own middle-aged Sun. As the fast stellar wind runs into slow moving gas a shock front is formed, analogous to the bow wave of a boat moving through water or a plane traveling at supersonic speed. The small, arcing, graceful structure just above and left of center is LL Ori's cosmic bow shock, measuring about half a light-year across. The slower gas is flowing away from the Orion Nebula's hot central star cluster, the Trapezium, located off the upper left corner of the picture. In three dimensions, LL Ori's wrap-around shock front is shaped like a bowl that appears brightest when viewed along the \"bottom\" edge. This beautiful painting-like photograph is part of a large mosaic view of the complex stellar nursery in Orion, filled with a myriad of fluid shapes associated with star formation.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1802/LLOri_hubble_4806.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "LL Ori and the Orion Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1802/LLOri_hubble_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "an annual\nshower",
		"date": "2009-05-01",
		"explanation": "On April 22nd, the Lyrid Meteor Shower visited planet Earth's sky, an annual shower produced as the Earth plows through dust from the tail of comet Thatcher. Usually Lyrid meteor watchers see only a drizzle. Just a few meteors per hour stream away from the shower's radiant point near bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra. But photographer Tony Rowell still managed to catch one bright Lyrid meteor. Recorded in early morning hours, his well-composed image looks toward the south from White Mountains of eastern California, USA. During the time exposure, he briefly illuminated an old mining cabin in the region's Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the foreground. The rich starfields and dust clouds of our own Milky Way galaxy stretch across the background, along the meteor's glowing trail.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090501.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0905/MeteorMilkyway_rowell.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Lyrid Meteor and Milky Way",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0905/MeteorMilkyway_rowell_c600.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Brad GoldpaintGoldpaint Photography",
		"date": "2016-06-19",
		"explanation": "What's older than these ancient trees? Nobody you know -- but almost everything in the background of this picture. The trees are impressively old -- each part of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest located in eastern California, USA. There, many of the oldest trees known are located, some dating as far back as about 5,000 years.  Seemingly attached to tree branches, but actually much farther in the distance, are the bright orbs of Saturn (left) and Mars. These planets formed along with the Earth and the early Solar System much earlier -- about 4.5 billion years ago.  Swooping down diagonally from the upper left is the oldest structure pictured: the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy -- dating back around 9 billion years.  The featured image was built from several exposures all taken from the same location -- but only a few weeks ago.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/BristleconeSky_Goldpaint_1600.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Galaxy and Planets Beyond Bristlecone Pines",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/BristleconeSky_Goldpaint_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Adam Block",
		"date": "2005-04-06",
		"explanation": "M7 is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars on the sky.  The cluster, dominated by bright blue stars, can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky in the tail of the constellation of Scorpius.  M7 contains about 100 stars in total, is about 200 million years old, spans 25 light-years across, and lies about 1000 light-years away.   This color picture was taken recently at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA as part of the Advanced Observers Program. The M7 star cluster has been known since ancient times, being noted by Ptolemy in the year 130 AD.  Also visible is a dark dust cloud near the bottom of the frame, and literally millions of unrelated stars towards the Galactic center.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/m7_cook_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The M7 Open Star Cluster in Scorpius",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0504/m7_cook.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-03-30",
		"explanation": "Big, beautiful NGC 5584 is more that 50,000 light-years across and lies 72 million light-years away toward the constellation Virgo. The winding spiral arms of this gorgeous island universe are loaded with luminous young star clusters and dark dust lanes. Still, for earthbound astronomers NGC 5584 is not just another pretty face-on spiral galaxy. Home to some 250 Cepheid variable stars and a recent Type Ia supernova explosion, key objects for astronomical distance determinations, NGC 5584 is one of 8 galaxies used in a new study that includes additional Hubble Space Telescope observations to improve the measurement of Hubble's Constant - the expansion rate of the Universe. The results of the study lend weight to the theory that dark energy really is responsible for accelerating the expansion of the Universe, restricting models that try to explain the observed acceleration without the mysterious dark energy. In this sharp Hubble image of NGC 5584, many of the small reddish smudges are distant background galaxies.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1103/ngc5584_hstr.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 5584: Expanding the Universe",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1103/ngc5584_hst900r.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2006-05-27",
		"explanation": "If you could see gamma rays - photons with a million or more times the energy of visible light - the Moon would appear brighter than the Sun! The startling notion is demonstrated by this image of the Moon from the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) in orbit on NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory from April 1991 to June 2000. Then, the most sensitive instrument of its kind, even EGRET could not see the quiet Sun which is extremely faint at gamma-ray energies. So why is the Moon bright? High energy charged particles, known as cosmic rays, constantly bombard the unprotected lunar surface generating gamma-ray photons. EGRET's gamma-ray vision was not sharp enough to resolve a lunar disk or any surface features, but its sensitivity reveals the induced gamma-ray moonglow. So far unique, the image was generated from eight exposures made during 1991-1994 and covers a roughly 40 degree wide field of view with gamma-ray intensity represented in false color.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0605/moon_egret_150c.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Gamma-Ray Moon",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0605/moon_egret_150c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Matt Smith",
		"date": "2020-10-08",
		"explanation": "Lighter than typically dark, smooth, mare the Mare Frigoris lies in the far lunar north. Also known as the Sea of Cold, it stretches across the familiar lunar nearside in this close up of the waxing gibbous Moon's north polar region. Dark-floored, 95 kilometer wide crater Plato is just left of the center. Sunlit peaks of the lunar Alps (Montes Alpes) are highlighted below and right of Plato, between the more southern Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) and Mare Frigoris. The prominent straight feature cutting through the mountains is the lunar Alpine Valley (Vallis Alpes). Joining the Mare Imbrium and Mare Frigoris, the lunar valley is about 160 kilometers long and up to 10 kilometers wide.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/MareFrigorisMattSmith.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Mare Frigoris",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/MareFrigorisMattSmith1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1998-06-14",
		"explanation": "What are those strange blue objects? Many are images of a single, unusual, beaded, blue, ring-like galaxy which just happens to line-up behind a giant cluster of galaxies. Cluster galaxies here appear yellow and -- together with the cluster's dark matter -- act as a gravitational lens. A gravitational lens can create several images of background galaxies, analogous to the many points of light one would see while looking through a wine glass at a distant street light. The distinctive shape of this background galaxy -- which is probably just forming -- has allowed astronomers to deduce that it has separate images at 4, 8, 9 and 10 o'clock, from the center of the cluster. Possibly even the blue smudge just left of center is yet another image! This spectacular photo from HST was taken in October 1994. The first cluster lens was found unexpectedly by Roger Lynds (NOAO) and Vahe Petrosian (Stanford) in 1986 while testing a new type of imaging device.  Lensed arcs around this cluster, CL0024+1654, were first discovered from the ground by David Koo (UCO Lick) in 1988.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/cl0024_hst_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Giant Cluster Bends, Breaks Images",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/cl0024_hst.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-10-22",
		"explanation": "What caused the cracks in this giant ice-ball?\r Jupiter's moon Europa\r has smoothest surface in the solar system and is composed mostly\r of cracked water-ice. In the above false-colored picture\r released last week by the NASA team\r in charge of the Galileo mission,\r blue hues represent ice plains divided by dirty red and brown\r bands of mottled terrain. As the robot Galileo spacecraft orbits\r Jupiter, it sends back revealing pictures of Jupiter and\r its large moons\r including Europa, Io,\r Ganymede, and Callisto.\r The region of Europa\r highlighted above is known as Minos Linea. The cause for many\r of the cracks remains unknown but may involve shifting stresses\r from gravity and temperature variations. The new Galileo pictures\r have increased evidence that liquid oceans may indeed exist\r under these giant ice-sheets, a place possibly ripe for the development of life.\r",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/europacracks_gal_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Cracked Ice Plains of Europa",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/europacracks_gal.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Malcolm ParkNorth York Astronomical Association",
		"date": "2008-12-14",
		"explanation": "An unusual triangle of light is visible this time of year just before dawn. Once considered a false dawn, this triangle of light is actually Zodiacal Light, light reflected from interplanetary dust particles.  The triangle is clearly visible in the above image taken from New Mexico, USA, in October.  A telescope truss tube assembly and observatory domes of New Mexico Skies fill the foreground of the early morning skyscape. Zodiacal dust orbits the Sun predominantly in the same plane as the planets: the ecliptic.  Zodiacal light is so bright this time of year because the dust band is oriented nearly vertical at sunrise, so that the thick air near the horizon does not block out relatively bright reflecting dust.  Zodiacal light is also bright for people in Earth's northern hemisphere in March and April just after sunset.   Note: APOD Editor to Speak in New York on Jan. 2  digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081214.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0812/zodiacal_park_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Zodiacal Light Over New Mexico",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0812/zodiacal_park.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-02-14",
		"explanation": "Maybe the Moon owns our hearts, but this won't stop the occasional asteroid from sending us a valentine.  Friday, to the surprise of many, the NEAR mission on approach to asteroid 433 EROS photographed what appears to be a heart-shaped depression.  After NEAR reaches the asteroid today, NASA plans a series of maneuvers to make the robot spacecraft the first ever to orbit an asteroid. More detailed pictures will soon be taken of the 33 kilometer long asteroid EROS and this 5 kilometer long depression.  Most likely, fortuitous lighting and viewing angles accentuate the apparent heart shape -- but don't tell the Moon.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0002/erosheart_near.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "An Unexpected Asteroid Valentine",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0002/erosheart_near_big.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2008-11-05",
		"explanation": "Above is one of the closest pictures yet obtained of Saturn's ice-spewing moon Enceladus. The image was taken from about 1,700 kilometers up as the robotic Cassini spacecraft zoomed by the fractured ice ball last week.   Features the size of a bus are resolvable in this highly detailed image taken of Enceladus' active tiger stripe region. Very different from most other moons and planets, grooves and hills dot an alien moonscape devoid of craters. Space pioneers might wonder where, on such a highly textured surface, a future probe might land in search of freshly deposited ice, subsurface seas, or even indicators of life.  Although appearing dark in the above contrast-enhanced image, the surface of Enceladus is covered with some of the brightest ice in the entire Solar System, reflecting about 99 percent of the light it receives.  To help better understand this enigmatic world, Cassini is scheduled to swoop by Enceladus at least five more times.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081105.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0811/enceladusupclose_cassini_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Seventeen Hundred Kilometers Above Enceladus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0811/enceladusupclose_cassini.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-09-12",
		"explanation": "\r Mercury's surface looks similar to our Moon's. Each is heavily \r cratered and made of rock. \r Mercury's diameter is about 4800 km, while the \r Moon's is slightly less at about 3500 km (compared with about 12,700 km for the \r Earth). But \r Mercury is unique in many ways. \r Mercury is the closest planet to the \r Sun, orbiting at about 1/3 the radius of the \r Earth's orbit. As \r Mercury slowly rotates, its surface temperature varies from an unbearably cold -180 degrees \r Celsius to an unbearably hot 400 degrees \r Celsius. The place nearest the \r Sun in \r Mercury's orbit changes slightly each orbit - a fact used by \r Albert Einstein to help verify the correctness of his then newly discovered theory of gravity: \r General Relativity.  \r The above picture was taken by the only spacecraft ever to pass \r Mercury: \r Mariner 10 in 1974.\r \r",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/merc2_m10_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Mercury: A Cratered Inferno",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/merc2_m10.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-04-19",
		"explanation": "Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 7 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and left of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and some 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex lie a mere 7,100 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp, tantalizing view of the cosmic bubble is a composite of Hubble Space Telescope image data from 2016, reprocessed to present the nebula's intense narrowband emission in an approximate true color scheme.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/BubbleNebHST_kakitsev2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/BubbleNebHST_kakitsev1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-04-18",
		"explanation": "This bright white swath cutting across the surface of icy Jovian moon Europa is known as Agenor Linea. In all about 1000 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide, only a section is pictured here as part of a combined color and black and white image based on data from the Galileo spacecraft. Most linear features on Europa are dark in color but Agenor Linea is uniquely bright for unknown reasons. Also unknown is the origin of the reddish material along the sides. While these and other details of Europa's surface formations remain mysterious, the general results of Galileo's exploration of Europa have supported the idea that an ocean of liquid water lies beneath the cracked and frozen crust. An extraterrestrial liquid ocean holds out the tantalizing possibility of life.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0004/europaline_gal_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Europa: Ice Line",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0004/europaline_gal.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2012-08-12",
		"explanation": "This galaxy is having a bad millennium.  In fact, the past 100 million years haven't been so good, and probably the next billion or so will be quite tumultuous.  Visible on the upper left, NGC 4038 used to be a normal spiral galaxy, minding its own business, until NGC 4039, toward its right, crashed into it.  The evolving wreckage, known famously as the Antennae, is pictured above.  As gravity restructures each galaxy, clouds of gas slam into each other, bright blue knots of stars form, massive stars form and explode, and brown filaments of dust are strewn about.  Eventually the two galaxies will converge into one larger spiral galaxy. Such collisions are not unusual, and even our own Milky Way Galaxy has undergone several in the past and is predicted to collide with our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years. The frames that compose this image were taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope by professional astronomers to better understand galaxy collisions. These frames -- and many other deep space images from Hubble -- have since been made public, allowing an interested amateur to download and process them into this visually stunning composite.   Growing Gallery: Perseid Meteor Shower 2012",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1208/ngc4038_russell_2925.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Spiral Galaxy NGC 4038 in Collision",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1208/ngc4038_russell_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "John\nRummel",
		"date": "2004-05-21",
		"explanation": "Venus is currently falling out of the western evening sky. Second planet from the Sun and third brightest celestial object after the Sun and Moon, Venus has been appreciated by casual sky gazers as a brilliant beacon above the horizon after sunset. But telescopic images have also revealed its dramatic phases. In fact, this thoughtful composite of telescopic views nicely illustrates the progression of phases and increase in apparent size undergone by Venus over the past few weeks. Gliding along its interior orbit, Venus has been catching up with planet Earth, growing larger as it draws near. At the same time, just as the Moon goes through phases, Venus' visible sunlit hemisphere has presented an increasingly slender, crescent shape. Now sharing the sky with a crescent Moon, on June 8th Venus will actually cross the face of the Sun, the first such transit since 1882.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0405/venusphase_rummel.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Phases of Venus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0405/venusphase_rummel_c1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Carlos Fairbairn",
		"date": "2015-10-19",
		"explanation": "Have you ever seen the Southern Cross? This famous constellation is best seen from Earth's Southern Hemisphere. Captured from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the four bright stars that mark the Southern Cross are visible just above the horizon in the featured image. On the left of this constellation, also known as The Crux, is the orange star Gamma Crucis.  The band of stars, dust, and gas rising through the middle of the image mosaic is part our Milky Way Galaxy.  Just to the right of the Southern Cross is the dark Coal Sack Nebula, and the bright nebula at the top of the image is the Carina Nebula.  The Southern Cross is such a famous constellation that it is depicted on the national flags of Australia and New Zealand.   Follow APOD on: Facebook,  Google Plus, or Twitter",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1510/SouthernCrossSky_Fairbairn_1824.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Southern Cross in a Southern Sky",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1510/SouthernCrossSky_Fairbairn_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2002-03-14",
		"explanation": "Tomorrow's picture: Neutron Mars  < | Archive | Index | Search | Calendar | Glossary | Education | About APOD | >  Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0203/hst_sts109_e5631.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "SM3B: Mission to Hubble",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0203/hst_sts109_c1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-12-31",
		"explanation": "When the second millennium began, people generally knew that the Earth was round, but few saw much of it beyond their local village.  As the millennium progressed, humans mapped the continents, circumnavigated the globe, and determined the composition of the Earth.  The Earth started as the center of everything, but became a planet placed in the Solar System, which became placed in a Galaxy, which became placed in the Local Group of Galaxies, which became placed in an expanse so vast we call it just the Universe.  As millennium two ends people generally know what Earth looks like from afar, and how it is that all of humanity is confined to the surface of this fragile and watery globe.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9912/earthrise_apollo8_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Millennium that Defined Earth",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9912/earthrise_apollo8.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2013-10-22",
		"explanation": "For reasons unknown, NGC 6357 is forming some of the most massive stars ever discovered.  One such massive star, near the center of NGC 6357, is framed above carving out its own interstellar castle with its energetic light from surrounding gas and dust. In the greater nebula, the intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity.  The overall glow of the nebula results from the emission of light from ionized hydrogen gas.  Near the more obvious Cat's Paw nebula, NGC 6357 houses the open star cluster Pismis 24, home to many of these tremendously bright and blue stars.  The central part of NGC 6357 shown spans about 10 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1310/ngc6357_hubble_3140.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Massive Star in NGC 6357",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1310/ngc6357_hubble_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Wally Pacholka",
		"date": "2015-11-01",
		"explanation": "You don't have to be at Monument Valley to see the Milky Way arch across the sky like this -- but it helps. Only at Monument Valley USA would you see a picturesque foreground that includes these iconic rock peaks called buttes. Buttes are composed of hard rock left behind after water has eroded away the surrounding soft rock.  In the featured image taken in 2012, the closest butte on the left and the butte to its right are known as the Mittens, while Merrick Butte can be seen just further to the right. High overhead stretches a band of diffuse light that is the central disk of our spiral Milky Way Galaxy. The band of the Milky Way can be spotted by almost anyone on almost any clear night when far enough from a city and surrounding bright lights.   APOD in Spanish: On the web and Facebook",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1511/monumentvalley_pacholka_1387.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Milky Way Over Monument Valley",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1511/monumentvalley_pacholka_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2002-01-22",
		"explanation": "For the first time, Earth's gravity has been used to isolate quantum energy levels of the neutron.  The effect may be used in the future to test for slightly different effects of gravity on neutrally charged particles of different mass. In an experiment by Valery Nesvizhevsky and colleagues at the Laue-Langevin Institute, carefully dropped neutrons were seen to appear at only discrete heights.  The effect is also of interest because it involves the intersection of two branches of physics that remain formally separate. A theory known as Quantum Mechanics tells us about how the universe works on the smallest scales, while Einstein's General Theory of Relativity tells us about how gravity and the universe works on the largest scales.  The effect does not in itself, however, imply attributes of a possible quantum field nature of gravity. Pictured above is a false-color surface that might be created by the evolution of a one-dimensional string.  By describing fundamental particles as tiny strings, many physicists are working toward the creation of a truly quantum theory of gravity.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0201/quantumgravity_npac_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Neutron Bounce Quantized in Earth Gravity",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0201/quantumgravity_npac.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2020-05-24",
		"explanation": "The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars.  Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep.  By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep.  The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled.  Several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon.  The featured mosaic was  created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2005/marsglobe_viking_1552.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2005/marsglobe_viking_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Adam Block",
		"date": "2019-11-07",
		"explanation": "Hurtling through a cosmic dust cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters open star cluster is well-known for its striking blue reflection nebulae. It lies in the night sky toward the constellation Taurus and the Orion Arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. The sister stars and cosmic dust cloud are not related though, they just happen to be passing through the same region of space. Known since antiquity as a compact grouping of stars, Galileo first sketched the star cluster viewed through his telescope with stars too faint to be seen by eye.  Charles Messier recorded the position of the cluster as the 45th entry in his famous catalog of things which are not comets. In Greek myth, the Pleiades were seven daughters of the astronomical titan Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione. Their parents names are included in the cluster's nine brightest stars. This deep and wide telescopic image spans over 20 light-years across the Pleides star cluster.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1911/m45astrograph.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Messier 45: The Daughters of Atlas and Pleione",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1911/m45astrograph1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1998-01-16",
		"explanation": "How much dust is in spiral galaxies? Does it block out much of the starlight? Because astronomers rely on an accurate knowledge of galaxy properties to investigate a wide range of problems, like galaxy and quasar evolution and the nature of dark matter, answers to simple questions like this are key. This striking, detailed Hubble Space Telescope image of dust in the outer reaches of a foreground spiral galaxy (left) back lit by an elliptical galaxy offers an elegant approach to providing the answers. As expected, dust lanes in the foreground galaxy seem to be associated with spiral arms. But surprisingly, many dust regions are not completely opaque and the dust is more smoothly distributed than anticipated. This \"overlapping\" pair of galaxies is cataloged as AM1316-241 and is about 400 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9801/am1316_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Dusting Spiral Galaxies",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9801/am1316_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2006-07-30",
		"explanation": "The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars.  Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep.  By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep.  The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled.  Recently, several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon.  The above mosaic was  created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0607/marsglobe_viking_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0607/marsglobe_viking.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Angus Lau",
		"date": "2011-12-20",
		"explanation": "NGC 253 is not only one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, it is also one of the dustiest.  Discovered in 1783 by Caroline Herschel in the constellation of Sculptor, NGC 253 lies only about ten million light-years distant.  NGC 253 is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest group to our own Local Group of Galaxies.  The dense dark dust accompanies a high star formation rate, giving NGC 253 the designation of starburst galaxy.  Visible in the above photograph is the active central nucleus, also known to be a bright source of X-rays and gamma rays.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1112/ngc253_lau_1200.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 253: The Sculptor Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1112/ngc253_lau_900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2017-10-11",
		"explanation": "If our Sun were near the center of NGC 362, the night sky would glow like a jewel box of bright stars. Hundreds of stars would glow brighter than Sirius, and in many different colors. Although these stars could become part of breathtaking constellations and intricate folklore, it would be difficult for planetary inhabitants there to see -- and hence understand -- the greater universe beyond.  NGC 362 is one of only about 170 globular clusters of stars that exist in our Milky Way Galaxy. This star cluster is one of the younger globulars, forming likely well after our Galaxy.  NGC 362 can be found with the unaided eye nearly in front of the Small Magellanic Cloud, and angularly close to the second brightest globular cluster known, 47 Tucanae.  The featured image was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope to help better understand how massive stars end up near the center of some globular clusters.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1710/ngc362_HubbleHeyl_3617.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Star Cluster NGC 362 from Hubble",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1710/ngc362_HubbleHeyl_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-10-03",
		"explanation": "The dramatic rotation of the cloud-tops of Saturn every ten-hours is particularly evident from orbit around the gas giant planet.  With a good enough telescope, however, such rotation is visible even from Earth, as shown by this time-lapse image sequence from the Hubble Space Telescope taken in November 1990.  Particularly evident at that time was a light-colored giant storm cloud system that completely encircled the planet.  The storm was not evident twenty years ago during the flybys of the Voyager spacecraft -- a storm of this magnitude was last noted in 1933.  Studying the complex atmosphere of Saturn will be one objective of the Cassini spacecraft launched by NASA in 1997 and expected to arrive in 2004.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0010/satrotmovie_hst.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Saturn Rotates",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0010/satrotmovie_hst.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "West Mountain Observatory",
		"date": "2018-10-20",
		"explanation": "Not a Falcon 9 rocket launch after sunset, the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its haunting symmetries are seen in the very central region of this composited picture, processed to reveal an enormous but extremely faint halo of gaseous material, over three light-years across. Made with data from ground- and space-based telescopes it shows the extended emission which surrounds the brighter, familiar planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a sun-like star. But only more recently have some planetaries been found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material shrugged off during earlier active episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the outer filamentary portions of this halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years old.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1810/NGC6543-BYU-L.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Halo of the Cat's Eye",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1810/NGC6543-BYU-L1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Skyscapes",
		"date": "2002-06-10",
		"explanation": "Today, a few lucky people will see a \"ring of fire.\"  That's a name for the central view of an annular eclipse of the Sun by the Moon.  At the peak of this eclipse, the middle of the Sun will appear to be missing and the dark Moon will appear to be surrounded by the bright Sun.  This will only be visible, however, from a path that crosses the Pacific Ocean.  From most locations at most times, including most of eastern Asia and western North America, the Moon will only appear to take a bite out the Sun.  In east Asia, the rising Sun will appear partially eclipsed on the morning of June 11.  Simultaneously, in much of North America, the same eclipsed sun will appear to be setting on June 10.  Remember to never look directly at the Sun even during an eclipse.  An annular eclipse occurs instead of a total eclipse when the Moon is on the far part of its elliptical orbit around the Earth.  The next annular eclipse of the Sun will take place in 2003 May, although a total eclipse will occur later this year in early December.  Pictured above, a spectacular annular eclipse was photographed behind palm trees on 1992 January.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0206/RingOfFire_mammana.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Annular Eclipse: The Ring of Fire",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0206/RingOfFire_mammana.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "MelodySheepSymphony of Science Music Credit: Our Story",
		"date": "2012-11-14",
		"explanation": "Could you tell the story of human existence in a minute? This thrilling video culls together multiple teasing snippets in an attempt to do just that. And sets it to music. Briefly depicted, from start to finish, is an artistic animation of the Big Bang, a trip across the early universe, the formation of the Earth and Moon, the emergence of multi-celled life and plants, the rise of reptiles and dinosaurs, a devastating meteor strike, the rise of mammals and humans, and finally the rise of modern civilization. The minute movie ends with a flyover of the modern skyscraper and a human standing atop a snow covered mountain. The above video is the latest from the Symphony of Science project.   Gallery: Yesterday's Total Solar Eclipse  Challenge: Can you identify the skyscraper at 1:18 and the snow-covered mountain at 1:25?",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Our Story in One Minute",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9701/juphaze_gal.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-12-10",
		"explanation": "These colorful images are of thin slices of meteorites viewed through a polarizing microscope. Part of the group classified as HED (Howardite, Eucrite, Diogenite) meteorites for their mineral content, they likely fell to Earth from 4 Vesta, the mainbelt asteroid currently being explored by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Why are they thought to be from Vesta? Because the HED meteorites have visible and infrared spectra that match the spectrum of that small world. The hypothesis of their origin on Vesta is also consistent with data from Dawn's ongoing observations. Excavated by impacts, the diogenites shown here would have originated deep within the crust of Vesta. Similar rocks are also found in the lower crust of planet Earth. A sample scale is indicated by the white bars, each 2 millimeters long.   Browse or share: Lastest lunar eclipse pictures",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1112/PIA15138vestarocks.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Vesta Rocks",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1112/PIA15138vestarocks.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-10-02",
		"explanation": "Yes, but can your meteor do this?  The most powerful natural explosion in recent Earth history occurred on 1908 June 30 when a meteor exploded above the Tunguska River in Siberia, Russia.  Detonating with an estimated power 1,000 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, the Tunguska event leveled trees over 40 kilometers away and shook the ground in a tremendous earthquake.  Eyewitness reports are astounding.  The above picture was taken by a Russian expedition to the Tunguska site almost 20 years after the event, finding trees littering the ground like toothpicks. Estimates of the meteor's size range from 60 meters to over 1000 meters in diameter.  Recent evidence suggests that nearby Lake Cheko may even have been created by the impact. Although a meteor the size of the Tunguska can level a city, metropolitan areas take up such a small fraction of the Earth's surface that a direct impact on one is relatively unlikely.  More likely is an impact in the water near a city that creates a dangerous tsunami.  One focus of modern astronomy is to find Solar System objects capable of creating such devastation well before they impact the Earth.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1110/tunguska_kulik_2408.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Tunguska: The Largest Recent Impact Event",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1110/tunguska_kulik_900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Noel\nMunford",
		"date": "2007-01-18",
		"explanation": "After a remarkable performance in the northern hemisphere, the brightest comet in decades is now showing off in the south. Recorded during evening twilight on January 17, this view features the bright coma and gorgeous, sweeping tail of Comet McNaught (c/2006 P1) over Lake Horowhenua in Levin, a small town on New Zealand's North Island. Astronomer Noel Munford reports that the five second long digital camera exposure comes close to capturing the visual appearance of the comet in a sky coloured by smoke from distant brush fires in Australia. Discovered last summer by R. H. McNaught (Siding Spring Survey), the comet grew impressively bright in early January and has even been sighted in full daylight. In the coming days Comet McNaught will continue to move south, for now a spectacle in southern skies as it heads for the outer solar system.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0701/CometMcNaught_munford.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Southern Comet",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0701/CometMcNaught_munford_c505.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Sergei Makurin",
		"date": "2018-04-03",
		"explanation": "You may have heard of the Seven Sisters in the sky, but have you heard about the Seven Strong Men on the ground? Located just west of the Ural Mountains, the unusual Manpupuner rock formations are one of the Seven Wonders of Russia. How these ancient 40-meter high pillars formed is yet unknown.  The persistent photographer of this featured image battled rough terrain and uncooperative weather to capture these rugged stone towers in winter at night, being finally successful in February of 2014.  Utilizing the camera's time delay feature, the photographer holds a flashlight in the foreground near one of the snow-covered pillars.  High above, millions of stars shine down, while the band of our Milky Way Galaxy crosses diagonally down from the upper left.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/SevenStrongSky_Makurin_960.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Milky Way over the Seven Strong Men Rock Formations",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/SevenStrongSky_Makurin_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-05-10",
		"explanation": "An asteroid the size of New Jersey that orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter has been discovered to have an unusual dog-bone shape.  Asteroid 216 Kleopatra, recently mapped with Earth-based radar, reflects radio waves so well that astronomers speculate it is composed mostly of metals such as nickel and iron.  The unusual shape and composition of 216 Kleopatra may derive from the central regions of a tremendous collision between larger asteroids billions of years ago.   Kleopatra is not completely solid - its surface is loosely consolidated rubble, although its core may contain large solid-metal lodes.   Kleopatra will never strike the Earth, but it may one day serve as a valuable source of raw building materials.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0005/kleo_arecibo.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Dog-Bone Shaped Asteroid 216 Kleopatra",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0005/kleo_arecibo_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Antti Kemppainen",
		"date": "2013-11-10",
		"explanation": "Sometimes the sky itself is the best show in town.  In January 2007, people from Perth, Australia gathered on a local beach to watch a sky light up with delights near and far.  Nearby, fireworks exploded as part of Australia Day celebrations.  On the far right, lightning from a thunderstorm flashed in the distance.  Near the image center, though, seen through clouds, was the most unusual sight of all: Comet McNaught.  The photogenic comet was so bright that it even remained visible though the din of Earthly flashes.  Comet McNaught has now returned to the outer Solar System and is now only visible with a large telescope. The above image is actually a three photograph panorama digitally processed to reduce red reflections from the exploding firework.    Experience the Universe: Random APOD generator",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1311/mcnaught3_kemppainen_1744.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Comet Between Fireworks and Lightning",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1311/mcnaught3_kemppainen_1744.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "T. PuckettPuckett Observatory",
		"date": "1999-11-13",
		"explanation": "Star trails streak this composite time exposure of Comet Tempel-Tuttle recorded by T. Puckett on January 26, 1998. Then passing through the inner solar system on its 33 year orbit around the Sun, Tempel-Tuttle brightened unexpectedly, but binoculars or small telescopes were still required to visually observe it. Tempel-Tuttle is also called \"the Leonid Comet\" as the yearly Leonid meteor shower results when the Earth crosses this comet's orbital plane and encounters cometary dust. So, while not rivaling spectacular naked-eye comets like Hyakutake or Hale-Bopp, Tempel-Tuttle still puts on a show. When the Earth plunges through Tempel-Tuttle's debris tail in November of this year, many sky-watchers are anticipating an extremely active meteor shower to result, perhaps even a meteor storm!",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9801/temptut_puckett.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Tempel-Tuttle: The Leonid Comet",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9801/temptut_puckett_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Gabriel Rodrigues Santos",
		"date": "2021-04-26",
		"explanation": "These three bright nebulae are often featured on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded starfields of the central Milky Way. In fact, 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the large nebula below and right of center, and colorful M20 near the top of the frame. The third emission region includes NGC 6559, left of M8 and separated from the larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant. Over a hundred light-years across the expansive M8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. M20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the dominant red color of the emission nebulae. But for striking contrast, blue hues in the Trifid are due to dust reflected starlight. The broad interstellarscape spans almost 4 degrees or 8 full moons on the sky.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2104/M8-M20_GabrielSantos_APOD.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Sagittarius Triplet",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2104/M8-M20_GabrielSantos_APOD1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Stan Richard",
		"date": "2004-05-01",
		"explanation": "On April 23rd, the Moon along with planets Saturn, Mars, and Venus (and planet Earth of course ...) were all visible in the west at twilight, captured here from a site near Saylorvillle Lake north of Des Moines, Iowa, USA.  Putting your cursor over the image will label our fellow solar system wanderers and also reveal the approximate trajectory of the ecliptic plane - defined by Earth's orbit around the Sun - angling above the western horizon. After sunset tonight, the western sky will present a similar arrangement of planets, although the Moon will have moved east out of the picture, passing bright Jupiter along the ecliptic and heading for May 4th's total lunar eclipse. May could also be a good month for comets.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0405/mvms_042304_richard_f1.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Western Sky at Twilight",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0405/mvms_042304_richard_f2.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Wayne Pryde",
		"date": "2004-12-07",
		"explanation": "Meteor experts don't think it's a meteor.  Atmospheric scientists don't think it's lightning.  The photographer insists that the streak and flash on the above image has not been created digitally.  So what is it? Nobody is sure.  APOD's editors do not claim to know - one purpose of posting this image is to mine the eclectic brain trust of APOD's readers to help see if some unusual phenomenon was caught serendipitously.  The strange features were captured on a series of images intended to monitor cloud changes in the background.  Images taken just before and after the above frame show no streak or flash.  The light pole near the flash has been inspected and does not show any damage, although the light inside was not working.  If you think you know what is going on, instead of sending us email please participate in an online discussion.  If a convincing argument or consensus is reached, the answer will be posted on APOD at a later date.   Discussion consensus: Australian strange streak is plausibly just a flying insect. News: The answer to Lewin's Challenge APOD can be found here.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0412/strange_pryde_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Strange Streak Imaged in Australia",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0412/strange_pryde.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-08-07",
		"explanation": "The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one above.  Here, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the hourglass. The unprecedented sharpness of the HST images has revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process that are helping to resolve the outstanding mysteries of the complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulas.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1108/mycn18_hst_1280.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1108/mycn18_hst_900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2008-06-05",
		"explanation": "The Spitzer Space Telescope's encompasing infrared view of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy is hard to appreciate in just one picture. In fact, more than 800,000 frames of data from Spitzer's cameras have now been pieced together in an enormous mosaic of the galactic plane - the most detailed infrared picture of our galaxy ever made. The small portion seen here spans nearly 8 degrees, roughly the apparent width of your fist held at arms length, across the galaxy's center. The full mosaic is 120 degrees wide. Highlighted in the false-color presentation are curving green filaments of light from complex molecules - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - that on Earth are the common, sooty products of incomplete combustion. The PAHs are found in star forming regions, along with reddish emission from graphite dust particles. Blue specks throughout the picture are individual Milky Way stars.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080605.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0806/iracmb_gc_f1.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Spitzer's Milky Way",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0806/iracmb_gc_c800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Luca Vanzella",
		"date": "2016-09-22",
		"explanation": "On September 18, the setting Sun illuminated both sides of the steep brick and steel canyon otherwise known as Jasper Avenue in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, planet Earth. The Stonehenge-like alignment is captured from the middle of the road in this daring snapshot. In Edmonton streets are laid out on a grid almost oriented along the cardinal directions, so aligned Edmonton sunsets (and sunrises) occur along the nearly east-west streets twice a year, close to the Equinox. In fact, at today's Equinox, the Sun crosses the celestial equator at 1421 UT and on this day the Sun will rise due east and set due west, bringing approximately equal hours of day and night to denizens of planet Earth. The September Equinox marks the astronomical beginning of Fall in the north and Spring in the southern hemisphere.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1609/20160918EdmontonhengeVanzella2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Sunset at Edmontonhenge",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1609/20160918EdmontonhengeVanzella1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2019-10-01",
		"explanation": "If you were a small one-eyed monster, would you want to visit a black hole? Well the one in this video does -- but should it? No, actually, but since our little friend is insistent on going, the video informs it what black holes really are, and how to be as safe as possible when visiting. Black holes are clumps of matter so dense that light cannot escape. Pairs of black holes, each several times the mass of our Sun, have recently been found to merge by detection of unusual gravitational radiation.  The regions surrounding supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies can light up as stars that near them get shredded. The closest known black hole to the Earth is V616 Mon, which is about 3,300 light years away. The best way for our monster friend to stay safe, the video informs, is to not go too close.",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Black Hole Safety Video",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1609/2016_07_20_Uplnkova_noc_Brno_PanoHDR_1024px.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2008-02-09",
		"explanation": "An intricate network of lighting plays across the 130 foot high Rotating Service Structure (RSS) in this dramatic night view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A. Small human figures visible in silhouette emphasize the structure's enormous scale. Seen here after rolling back before Thursday's shuttle launch, the RSS provides pre-launch access to the orbiter and its payload. For this mission to the International Space Station, STS-122, Atlantis' payload is the European Space Agency's Columbus science laboratory. During the mission, three space walks are planned to attach the Columbus lab. Atlantis is expected to dock with the space station today.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080209.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0802/atlantis_sts122.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Atlantis on Pad 39A",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0802/atlantis_sts122_800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2009-03-29",
		"explanation": "even years ago results were first presented indicating that most of the energy in our universe is not in stars or galaxies but is tied to space itself.  In the language of cosmologists, a large cosmological constant is directly implied by new distant supernovae observations.  Suggestions of a cosmological constant (lambda) were not new -- they have existed since the advent of modern relativistic cosmology. Such claims were not usually popular with astronomers, though, because lambda is so unlike known universe components, because lambda's value appeared limited by other observations, and because less- strange cosmologies without lambda had previously done well in explaining the data. What is noteworthy here is the seemingly direct and reliable method of the observations and the good reputations of the scientists conducting the investigations. Over the past eleven years, independent teams of astronomers have continued to accumulate data that appears to confirm the existence of dark energy and the unsettling result of a presently accelerating universe. The above picture of a supernova that occurred in 1994 on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy was taken by one of these collaborations.    digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090329.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0903/sn94d_highz_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Signals of a Strange Universe",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0903/sn94d_highz.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1998-07-15",
		"explanation": "How do you find a nearly invisible galaxy?  Pictured above is the blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy NGC 2915. In visible light, shown above in yellow, this galaxy appears to be a normal dwarf galaxy, as indicated by the yellow smudge in the image center.  Yet when imaged in a very specific color, shown in blue, a whole spiral galaxy appears.  This specific color is in the radio band and is preferentially emitted by neutral hydrogen atoms. Much about BCD galaxies remains mysterious, such as how the neutral hydrogen obtained its shape, what drives current star formation, and why there is so much dark matter.  NGC 2915 is located at the relatively nearby distance of 15 million light-years - just outside our Local Group of Galaxies.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9807/ngc2915_meurer_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Ghost Galaxy NGC 2915",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1604/CometCluster_Chambo_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2016-10-03",
		"explanation": "What would it be like to fly around a comet nucleus? To find out, just wait for your WebGL-compatible browser to load a detailed digital model of Comet 67P and then -- go exploring! With a standard mouse, the left button allows you to rotate the comet, the right button allows you to move the comet around, and the scroll wheel allows you to zoom in.  ESA's robotic Rosetta spacecraft orbited Comet C67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko from mid-2014 until last Friday, when, after a remarkable and successful mission, it was intentionally set down on the surface and powered down.  Among many notable scientific achievements, Rosetta allowed humanity to better understand where comet jets form on comets as they near the Sun.   Transparent Science: Browse 1,350+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Explore Rosetta's Comet",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0901/flamingstar_garcia_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert NemiroffMTU",
		"date": "2013-07-02",
		"explanation": "What would it look like to go right up to a black hole? One particularly interesting place near a black hole is its photon sphere, where photons can orbit in circles, a sphere 50 percent further out than the event horizon. Were you to look out from the photon sphere of a black hole, half of the sky would appear completely black, half of the sky would appear unusually bright, and the back of your head would appear across the middle. The above computer-animated video depicts this view from the photon sphere. The reason that the lower region, as shown, appears black is because all light paths from this dark region comes up from the black hole -- which classically emits no light. The upper half of the sky now appears unusually bright, blueshifted, and shows increasingly many complete sky images increasingly close to the dark-light divide across the middle.  That dark-light divide is the photon sphere -- your location -- and since photons can do circles there, light from the back of your head can circle the black hole and come to your eye. No place on the sky is hidden from you -- stars that would normally pass behind the black hole now appear to zip quickly around an Einstein ring, a ring that appears above as a horizontal line about a quarter of the way down from the video top. The above video is part of a sequence of videos visually exploring the space near a black hole's event horizon.  (Disclosure: Video creator Robert Nemiroff is an editor for APOD.)",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Circling a Black Hole at its Photon Sphere",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0509/sn1993jsurvivor_esa_c1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2014-12-20",
		"explanation": "Have you seen a panorama from another world lately? Assembled from high-resolution scans of the original film frames, this one sweeps across the magnificent desolation of the Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon's Sea of Tranquility. Taken by Neil Armstrong looking out his window of the Eagle Lunar Module, the frame at the far left (AS11-37-5449) is the first picture taken by a person on another world. Toward the south, thruster nozzles can be seen in the foreground on the left, while at the right, the shadow of the Eagle is visible toward the west. For scale, the large, shallow crater on the right has a diameter of about 12 meters. Frames taken from the Lunar Module windows about an hour and a half after landing, before walking on the lunar surface, were intended to initially document the landing site in case an early departure was necessary.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1412/a11pan1040226lftsm.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Apollo 11 Landing Site Panorama",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1412/a11pan1040226lftsm600.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Dieter Willasch",
		"date": "2014-12-26",
		"explanation": "At the top right, large spiral galaxy NGC 1055 joins spiral Messier 77 in this sharp cosmic view toward the aquatic constellation Cetus. The narrowed, dusty appearance of edge-on spiral NGC 1055 contrasts nicely with the face-on view of M77's bright nucleus and spiral arms. Both over 100,000 light-years across, the pair are dominant members of a small galaxy group about 60 million light-years away. At that estimated distance, M77 is one of the most remote objects in Charles Messier's catalog and is separated from fellow island universe NGC 1055 by at least 500,000 light-years. The field of view is about the size of the full Moon on the sky and includes colorful foreground Milky Way stars (with diffraction spikes) along with more distant background galaxies.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1412/M77-4_10m-RGB_final.jpeg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Cetus Duo M77 and NGC 1055",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1412/M77-4_10m-RGB_final.jpeg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2017-09-26",
		"explanation": "How should Cassini say farewell to Saturn?  Three days before plunging into Saturn's sunny side, the robotic Cassini spacecraft swooped far behind Saturn's night side with cameras blazing. Thirty-six of these images have been merged -- by an alert and adept citizen scientist -- into a last full-ring portrait of Cassini's home planet for the past 13 years. The Sun is just above the frame, causing Saturn to cast a dark shadow onto its enormous rings. This shadow position cannot be imaged from Earth and will not be visible again until another Earth-launched spaceship visits the ringed giant.  Data and images from Cassini's mission-ending dive into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15 continue to be analyzed.   Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1709/LastRingPortrait_Cassini_4472.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Cassini's Last Ring Portrait at Saturn",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1709/LastRingPortrait_Cassini_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-05-01",
		"explanation": "Comet Hyakutake is shown photographed the night of March 27 in Arizona, USA, with a cactus in the foreground.  Polaris, the north star, is the bright star seen just to the upper right of the comet's head. Today Comet Hyakutake reaches its closest approach to the Sun. Comet Hyakutake is now at its intrinsic brightest, but because of its distance from the Earth, it will appear less bright to us than it did during its closest approach to the Earth in late March. In fact, due to the comet's angular proximity to the Sun, it will difficult to see at all from the Earth! Comet Hyakutake will reach less than one quarter of the Earth-Sun distance - inside the orbit of Mercury. Comet Hyakutake will not venture near the Sun again for another about 15,000 years.   Latest Comet Hyakutake images: APOD Hyakutake Archive, JPL, Fayetteville Observer-Times, NASA's Night of the Comet, ICSTARS, Jerry Lodriguss, ScienceWeb, Crni Vrh Obs.,",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0303/peopleearth94_usda.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Comet Hyakutake and a Cactus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/Moon_Hyades1Lodriguss.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "MaryBeth Kiczenski",
		"date": "2021-05-05",
		"explanation": "What creates STEVEs? Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancements (STEVEs) have likely been seen since antiquity, but only in the past five years has it been realized that their colors and shapes make them different from auroras. Seen as single bright streaks of pink and purple, the origin of STEVEs remain an active topic of research. STEVEs may be related to subauroral ion drifts (SAIDs), a supersonic river of hot atmospheric ions. For reasons currently unknown, STEVEs are frequently accompanied by green \"picket-fence\" auroras. The featured STEVE image is a combination of foreground and background exposures taken consecutively in mid-March from Copper Harbor, Michigan, USA. This bright STEVE lasted several minutes, spanned from horizon to horizon, and appeared in between times of normal auroras.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2105/SteveMichigan_Kiczenski_1378.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "STEVE over Copper Harbor",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2105/SteveMichigan_Kiczenski_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1999-12-03",
		"explanation": "This topographical map of the southern hemisphere of Mars was generated using data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Flying on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, MOLA has bounced a laser beam off the Martian surface over 200,000,000 times producing a wealth of detailed elevation measurements. The MOLA measurements have been color-coded so, for example, the white areas at left are the highest elevations in the southern Tharsis region and not snow-covered peaks. These areas are more than 6 kilometers above the hypothetical Martian \"sea-level\". Likewise, deep blues and purples are not water oceans but correspond to the lowest elevations (more than 4 kilometers below \"sea-level\"), like those found within the giant Hellas impact basin at right. In fact, liquid water is not present on Mars' surface today, but may have been in the past. NASA's Mars Polar Lander spacecraft is scheduled to embark on an investigation of the role of water in the climate history of the Red Planet. The lander is targeted to touch down within the long, thin ellipse indicated here just below the Martian South Pole today at 20:00 UTC.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9912/marssouthpole_mola_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Southern Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9912/marssouthpole_mola1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Neil deGrasseTysonAMNH",
		"date": "2004-05-28",
		"explanation": "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.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0405/nycsunset_tyson_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Manhattan Sunset",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0405/nycsunset_tyson.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2016-03-11",
		"explanation": "This snapshot from deep space captures planet Earth on March 9. The shadow of its large moon is falling on the planet's sunlit hemisphere. Tracking toward the east (left to right) across the ocean-covered world the moon shadow moved quickly in the direction of the planet's rotation. Of course, denizens of Earth located close to the shadow track centerline saw this lunar shadow transit as a brief, total eclipse of the Sun. From a spacebased perspective between Earth and Sun, the view of this shadow transit was provided by the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC).",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1603/eclipse_epc_2016068_4.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Lunar Shadow Transit",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1603/eclipse_epc_2016068_4_1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "selected by internet voters",
		"date": "2001-04-26",
		"explanation": "Difficult to see in small telescopes, the Horsehead nebula was recently selected by internet voters as a target for the Hubble Space Telescope. Above (top) is Hubble's detailed view of the dark cosmic dust cloud, released to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the workhorse orbiting observatory. Below it is a stunning ground-based view from the NOAO 0.9 meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory which shows the dark Horsehead against a wider edge-on expanse of glowing gas. Dramatic dust and gas clouds in and around the Horsehead are part of a large, complex stellar nursery seen towards the constellation of Orion. This star forming region is about 1,500 light-years distant and includes the well known Orion nebula. The Horsehead nebula is found just south of Zeta Orionis, the easternmost star in Orion's belt.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0104/horsehead_hubblenoao_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Horsehead Rides Again",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0104/horsehead_hubblenoao_c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Damian PeachSEN",
		"date": "2016-03-23",
		"explanation": "In one of the brightest parts of Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina, is home to massive stars and changing nebulas. The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), the bright structure just above the image center, houses several of these massive stars and has itself  changed its appearance. The entire Carina Nebula spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina.   Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically. Eta Carinae is the brightest star near the image center, just left of the Keyhole Nebula. While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that much of the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1603/Carina_Peach_4553.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Great Nebula in Carina",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1603/Carina_Peach_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "M. Horn",
		"date": "1998-06-04",
		"explanation": "Astrophotographer Michael Horn captured this gorgeous view of comet SOHO in the dark night sky above Wandibindle, Queensland, Australia on May 23rd. On this date, comet SOHO was moving against the background of the nebula-rich constellation of Orion. South is up in the picture which shows SOHO's bright head or coma and long tail extending past the glowing gas clouds and dark dust lanes of the Flame and Horsehead nebulae.  Alnitak, the bright star above and to the right of the cometary coma, is also known as Zeta Orionis, the eastern-most of the three stars in Orion's belt. Southern Hemisphere observers report that comet SOHO has recently undergone a dramatic increase in brightness.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9806/sohoneb_mhorn_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Comet SOHO and Nebulae in Orion",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9806/sohoneb_mhorn1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-09-16",
		"explanation": "What's happened to our Sun?  Nothing very unusual -- it just threw a filament. Toward the middle of 2012, a long standing solar filament suddenly erupted into space producing an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).  The filament had been held up for days by the Sun's ever changing magnetic field and the timing of the eruption was unexpected. Watched closely by the Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, the resulting explosion shot electrons and ions into the Solar System, some of which arrived at Earth three days later and impacted Earth's magnetosphere, causing visible aurorae. Loops of plasma surrounding an active region can be seen above the erupting filament in the featured ultraviolet image.  Although the Sun is now in a relatively inactive state of its 11-year cycle,  unexpected holes have opened in the Sun's corona allowing an excess of charged particles to stream into space. As before, these charged particles are creating auroras.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1809/filament_sdo_1080.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Solar Filament Erupts",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1809/filament_sdo_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2014-03-23",
		"explanation": "In the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole.  Studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling gas frequently indicate not only that a black hole is present, but also likely attributes.  The gas surrounding GRO J1655-40, for example, has been found to display an unusual flickering at a rate of 450 times a second.  Given a previous mass estimate for the central object of seven times the mass of our Sun, the rate of the fast flickering can be explained by a black hole that is rotating very rapidly.  What physical mechanisms actually cause the flickering -- and a slower quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) -- in accretion disks surrounding black holes and neutron stars remains a topic of much research.    Find that image: A new APOD search engine",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1403/blackhole_hobart_3300.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The View Near a Black Hole",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1403/blackhole_hobart_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Giuseppe Vella",
		"date": "2021-03-03",
		"explanation": "Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of years.  Located in Sicily, Italy, the volcano produces lava fountains over one kilometer high.  Mt. Etna is not only one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, it is one of the largest, measuring over 50 kilometers at its base and rising nearly 3 kilometers high.  Pictured erupting last month,  a lava plume shoots upwards, while hot lava flows down the volcano's exterior. Likely satellite trails appear above, while ancient stars dot the sky far in the distance.  This volcanic eruption was so strong that nearby airports were closed to keep planes from flying through the dangerous plume.  The image foreground and background were captured consecutively by the same camera and from the same location.    Please take a short survey in aesthetics & astronomy: Sonification",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/VolcanoStars_Vella_1920.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Stars over an Erupting Volcano",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/VolcanoStars_Vella_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2004-12-01",
		"explanation": "What causes the bright streaks on Dione?  Recent and likely future images of this unusual moon by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn might help us find out.  The above image was taken at the end of October from a distance of about one million kilometers. The bright streaks run across some of Dione's many craters, indicating that the process that created them occurred later than the impacts that created those craters.  Dione is made of mostly water ice but its relatively high density indicates that it contains much rock inside.  Giovanni Cassini discovered Dione in 1684.  The Cassini spacecraft is scheduled to photograph Dione at higher resolution in mid-December.  Currently, the highest resolution images of Dione remain those taken by the passing Voyager spacecraft in 1980.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0412/dione_cassini_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Saturn's Moon Dione from Cassini",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0412/dione_cassini.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "CFHTCoelumMegaCamJ.-C. CuillandreCFHTG. A. AnselmiCoelum",
		"date": "2020-11-24",
		"explanation": "Will our Sun look like this one day?  The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like star. The outer gasses of the star expelled into space appear from our vantage point as if we are looking down a helix. The remnant central stellar core, destined to become a white dwarf star, glows in light so energetic it causes the previously expelled gas to fluoresce. The Helix Nebula, given a technical designation of NGC 7293, lies about 700 light-years away towards the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius) and spans about 2.5 light-years. The featured picture was taken with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) located atop a dormant volcano in Hawaii, USA. A close-up of the inner edge of the Helix Nebula shows complex gas knots of unknown origin.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2011/Helix2_CFHT_1917.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Helix Nebula from CFHT",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2011/Helix2_CFHT_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1995-09-06",
		"explanation": "Callisto is a dirty battered world, showing the most beaten surface of Jupiter's major moons. Made of a rocky core covered by fractured ice, Callisto's past collisions with large meteors are evident as large craters surrounded by concentric rings. The four largest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto were all discovered by Galileo and Marius in 1610 with early telescopes and are now known as the Galilean satellites. The NASA spacecraft Galileo is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter is December of 1995.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9711/uranus_vg2_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Callisto: Dark Smashed Iceball",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0208/cenA_chandra.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Kevin Snair",
		"date": "2013-09-30",
		"explanation": "What is it? Some surely natural phenomenon has appeared in a video that, so far, has defied clear identification. The above time-lapse video was made to record Perseid meteors above Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick, Canada late this summer. The video, which ran from 9:30 pm August 11 to 3:00 am the next morning, records several meteor and satellite streaks beyond a picturesque background. Each image records a 30 second exposure. At about 25 seconds into the video, however, an unusual patchy green glow appears to cover the sky.  Possible explanations include airglow, aurora, lighting from an artificial or natural source, or something completely different.  This APOD is an attempt not only to solve this intriguing sky riddle, but to measure how powerful the APOD readership is as a citizen-science, collective-intelligence engine. If you have insight into what might be causing this phenomenon, please contribute to the discussion.    Note: How to follow APOD if the US government shuts down",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Mysterious Green Patches on the Sky",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0805/lander2panel_hirisephoenix.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2007-04-24",
		"explanation": "What does the Sun look like in all three spatial dimensions?  To find out, NASA launched two STEREO satellites to perceive three dimensions on the Sun much like two eyes allow humans to perceive three dimensions on the Earth.  Such a perspective is designed to allow new insight into the surface of the rapidly changing Sun, allowing humans to better understand and predict things like Coronal Mass Ejections and solar flares that affect the Earth as well as satellites and astronauts orbiting the Earth. Pictured above are two simultaneous images of the Sun taken by STEREO A and STEREO B, now digitally combined to give one of the first 3-D pictures of the Sun ever taken.   To fully appreciate the image, one should view it with 3-D red-blue glasses. The teeming and bubbling solar surface can be seen sporting a prominent solar prominence near the top of the image.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/sun3d_stereo_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Sun in Three Dimensions",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/sun3d_stereo.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Bob NanzSan Diego Astronomy Association",
		"date": "2007-12-31",
		"explanation": "Two spectacular comets graced Earth's skies during 2007.  Both comets became bright enough to be seen by the unaided eye of the casual sky enthusiast.  Early in 2007, Comet McNaught grew brighter than any comet in 40 years, displaying a beautiful dust tail that flowed across the sky.  Comet McNaught (c/2006 P1) became known as the Great Comet of 2007, sported unusual striations in its expansive dust tail, and showed unexpectedly complex chemistry in its ion tail.   Toward the year's end, normally docile and faint Comet Holmes brightened suddenly and unexpectedly to naked eye visibility.  Remarkably, Comet 17P/Holmes stayed bright for weeks even though it lies beyond the orbit of Mars.  No distant comet in recent history has remained so bright for so long.  In this view, a white Comet Holmes was photographed in early December posing with the Heart and Soul Nebulas.   APOD presents: Astronomy Pictures of the Year for 2007",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/holmespan_nanz_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Year of Spectacular Comets",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/holmespan_nanz.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-08-31",
		"explanation": "At full throttle the Deep Space 1 spacecraft's innovative ion drive produces about 1/50th of a pound of thrust ... a force so great that it would just about hold up a piece of paper on planet Earth! Still, powered by solar arrays ion propulsion systems can run continuously. For long duration space missions they ultimately win out over the powerful but brief blasts of less efficient chemical rockets. Deep Space 1 is seen here suspended in an assembly room, a folded solar array resting above the circular ion propulsion module. Already a successful technology demonstrator with experimental autonomous software, the spacecraft flew by asteroid 9969 Braille in July of 1999 but later that year, in November, the robot probe was nearly lost due to the failure of its wide-field star tracker camera. Now, the adventures of Deep Space 1 can continue. Engineers were able to reprogram the navigation system to utilize another on-board camera and on 28 June 2000 the ion drive was throttled up. Once again steering by the stars, Deep Space 1 is presently bound for a September 2001 rendezvous with periodic Comet Borrelly.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0008/ds1_jpl_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Full Throttle For Deep Space 1",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0008/ds1_jpl.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "NASAARCLeonid98",
		"date": "1998-01-26",
		"explanation": "Last Thursday an interplanetary spacecraft flew right past the Earth.  The above images show sunlight momentarily reflected from this spacecraft's solar panels.  No aliens were involved - the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission actually originated from Earth. Launched in 1996, NEAR zipped past the asteroid 253 Mathilde last June. This Earth flyby gravitationally deflects NEAR onto a trajectory passing the asteroid 433 Eros next year.  Above, NEAR appears to move through the constellation of Perseus, as  clouds created a changing diffuse white glow.  NEAR was only visible for about 2 minutes from San Jose, California, where these image-intensified video camera observations were taken.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0005/sungrazer1_lasco.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Interplanetary Spacecraft Passes Earth",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9801/nearpass_pj_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Bryan Goff",
		"date": "2020-07-06",
		"explanation": "Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Orion Nebula Arguably the most famous of all astronomy nebulas, the Great Nebula in Orion is an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away.  In the featured deep image shown in assigned colors, the part of the nebula's center known as M43 is shown as taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular constellation Orion.  The entire Orion Nebula, including both M42 and M43 spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2007/M43_HubbleGoff_4000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "M43: Dust, Gas, and Stars in the Orion Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2007/M43_HubbleGoff_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2007-03-15",
		"explanation": "Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans. Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar give it an ominous hook-shaped appearance. This striking color image also shows obscuring dust lanes, young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions surrounding a core of yellowish light from an older population of stars. But the star forming regions seem more concentrated along the drawn-out northern (top) spiral arm. The distorted structure is likely the result of a close encounter with a smaller galaxy located just outside this telescopic field of view. The picture spans about 1/6 of a degree, or 150,000 light years at the estimated distance of NGC 2442.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/NGC2442_ssroGoldman.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/NGC2442_ssroGoldman720.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2014-11-14",
		"explanation": "The Rosetta Mission lander is safely on a comet. One of Philae's feet appears at the bottom left of this spectacular image of the surface of C67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Still a happy lander, Philae bounced twice before settling and returning images from the surface, traveling a kilometer or so after initially touching at the targeted site Agilkia. A surface panorama suggests that the lander has come to rest tilted and near a shadowing wall, with its solar panels getting less illumination than hoped. Philae's science instruments are working as planned and data is being relayed during communications windows, when the Rosetta spacecraft is above the lander's new horizon.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1411/Welcome_to_a_comet.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Welcome to a Comet",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1411/Welcome_to_a_comet700.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Terry Hancock",
		"date": "2014-09-05",
		"explanation": "This rich starscape spans nearly 7 degrees on the sky, toward the Sagittarius spiral arm and the center of our Milky Way galaxy. A telescopic mosaic, it features well-known bright nebulae and star clusters cataloged by 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier. Still popular stops for skygazers M16, the Eagle (far right), and M17, the Swan (near center) nebulae are the brightest star-forming emission regions. With wingspans of 100 light-years or so, they shine with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen atoms from over 5,000 light-years away. Colorful open star cluster M25 near the upper left edge of the scene is closer, a mere 2,000 light-years distant and about 20 light-years across. M24, also known as the Sagittarius Star Cloud, crowds in just left of center along the bottom of the frame, fainter and more distant Milky Way stars seen through a narrow window in obscuring fields of interstellar dust.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1409/M16M17M18M24M25RGBHa_5panel_Hancock.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Sagittarius Starscape",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1409/M16M17M18M24M25RGBHa_5panel_Hancock1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2013-01-20",
		"explanation": "What is it?  It was found at the bottom of the sea aboard an ancient Greek ship.  Its seeming complexity has prompted decades of study, although some of its functions remained unknown.   X-ray images of the device have confirmed the nature of the Antikythera mechanism, and discovered several surprising functions.  The Antikythera mechanism has been discovered to be a mechanical computer of an accuracy thought impossible in 80 BC, when the ship that carried it sank.   Such sophisticated technology was not thought to be developed by humanity for another 1,000 years. Its wheels and gears create a portable orrery of the sky that predicted star and planet locations as well as lunar and solar eclipses. The Antikythera mechanism, shown above, is 33 centimeters high and therefore similar in size to a large book.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1301/antikythera_wikipedia_1036.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Antikythera Mechanism",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1301/antikythera_wikipedia_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2020-10-23",
		"explanation": "Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 2525 lies 70 million light-years from the Milky Way. It shines in Earth's night sky within the boundaries of the southern constellation Puppis. About 60,000 light-years across, its spiral arms lined with dark dust clouds, massive blue stars, and pinkish starforming regions wind through this gorgeous Hubble Space Telescope snapshot. Spotted on the outskirts of NGC 2525 in January 2018, supernova SN 2018gv is the brightest star in the frame at the lower left. In time-lapse, a year long series of Hubble observations followed the stellar explosion, the nuclear detonation of a white dwarf star triggered by accreting material from a companion star, as it slowly faded from view. Identified as a Type Ia supernova, its brightness is considered a cosmic standard candle. Type Ia supernovae are used to measure distances to galaxies and determine the expansion rate of the Universe.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/STScI_NGC2525_1865x2000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Supernova in NGC 2525",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/STScI_NGC2525_955x1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Ezequiel Etcheverry",
		"date": "2016-06-14",
		"explanation": "Here lie familiar shapes in unfamiliar locations. On the left is an emission nebula cataloged as NGC 7000, famous partly because it resembles our fair planet's continent of North America.  The emission region to the right of the North America Nebula is IC 5070, also known for its suggestive outlines as the Pelican Nebula.  Separated by a dark cloud of obscuring dust, the two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away. At that distance, the 4 degree wide field of view spans 100 light-years. This spectacular cosmic portrait combines narrow band images to highlight bright ionization fronts with fine details of dark, dusty forms in silhouette. Emission from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen is captured in the narrow band image in scientifically assigned colors. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/PelicanNorthAmerica_Etcheverry_3232.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The North America and Pelican Nebulas",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/PelicanNorthAmerica_Etcheverry_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "OAOG",
		"date": "2002-12-11",
		"explanation": "Streaking high above diffuse clouds -- but well in front of distant stars -- are sand-sized bits of an ancient comet: meteors.  These bits flaked off Comet Tempel-Tuttle during its pass through the inner Solar System about 150 years ago.  Far in the background are stars toward the constellation of Ursa Major. The above image is digital combination of 12 exposures taken on the morning of November 19 from Florida, USA.  Observers there reported a strong peak in faint meteors between 5:30 and 6:00 EST, with a particularly strong minute coming at 5:46 EST when 22 Leonid meteors were counted.  The likely less impressive Geminid meteor shower will peak over the next three nights.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0212/Leonids_martin_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Meteors Between Stars and Clouds",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0212/Leonids_martin.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Eric J. Zbinden",
		"date": "2009-02-06",
		"explanation": "On February 2nd, a first quarter Moon shone in planet Earth's early evening sky. As seen from a location on the US west coast near Mt. Hamilton, California, the International Space Station also arched above the horizon, crossing in front of the Moon's sunlit surface. The space station's transit lasted 0.49 seconds. This sharp exposure, a well-timed telescopic image, recorded the space station during the transit against the background of the Moon's smooth Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0902/ISS_0082_2009-02-02x2cropped.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Space Station in the Moon",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0902/ISS_0082_2009-02-02x2cropped800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "CEDIC Team",
		"date": "2015-03-06",
		"explanation": "The faint and somehow menacing cometary globule CG4 reaches through the center of this deep southern skyscape. About 1,300 light-years from Earth toward the constellation Puppis, its head is about 1.5 light-years in diameter and its tail about 8 light-years long. That's far larger than the Solar System's comets that it seems to resemble. In fact, the dusty cloud contains enough material to form several Sun-like stars and likely has ongoing star formation within. How its distinctive form came about is still debated, but its long tail trails away from the Vela Supernova remnant near the center of the Gum Nebula, while its head could represent the rupture of an originally more spherical cloud. Still, the edge-on spiral galaxy also near picture center is not actually being threatened by CG4. The galaxy lies in the distant background more than 100 million light-years away.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1503/cg04-1_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Cometary Globule CG4",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1503/cg04-1_1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2002-07-16",
		"explanation": "After just passing Mercury, the robot spacecraft Mariner 10 looked back.  The above picture is what it saw.  Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is heavily cratered much like Earth's Moon.  As Mercury slowly rotates, its surface temperature varies from an unbearably cold -180 degrees Celsius in the half facing away from the Sun, to an unbearably hot 400 degrees Celsius in the half facing toward the Sun.  Mercury is slightly larger than Earth's Moon and much denser.   The Mariner 10 spacecraft swooped by Mercury three times in its journey around the inner Solar System in the mid-1970s.  This outbound view has similarities to the inbound view.  Nearly half of Mercury's surface has yet to be photographed in detail.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0207/mercuryoutbound_mariner10_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Outbound from Mercury",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0207/mercuryoutbound_mariner10.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Adam Block",
		"date": "2010-07-02",
		"explanation": "Galaxies NGC 5216 (top) and NGC 5218 really do look like they are connected by a string. Of course, that string is a cosmic trail of gas, dust, and stars about 22,000 light-years long. Also known as Keenan's system (for its discoverer) and Arp 104, the interacting galaxy pair is some 17 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The debris trail that joins them, along with NGC 5218's comma-shaped extension and the distorted arms of NGC 5216, are a consequence of mutual gravitational tides. The tides disrupt the galaxies as they repeatedly swing close to one another. Drawn out over billions of years, the encounters will likely result in their merger into a single galaxy of stars. Such spectacular galactic mergers are now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1007/n5216_block.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Galaxies on a String",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1007/n5216_block_900c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Vicent PerisDSAOAUVPixInsightJack HarveyDSASSRO\nSteve Mazlin\n(DSA /\nSSRO),\n\nJose Luis Lamadrid\n(DSA /\nceFca),\n\nAna Guijarro\n(CAHA),\n\nRECTA,\n\nDSA.\n\n",
		"date": "2009-11-06",
		"explanation": "A familiar sight to sky enthusiasts with even a small telescope, the Ring Nebula (M57) is some 2,000 light-years away in the musical constellation Lyra. The central ring is about one light-year across, but this remarkably deep exposure - a collaborative effort combining data from three different telescopes - explores the looping filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the nebula's central star. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from a dying, sun-like star. This remarkable composite image includes narrowband image data recording the Ring's atomic hydrogen emission (shown as violet) in visible light and molecular hydrogen emission (shown as red) at near infrared wavelengths. The much more distant spiral galaxy IC 1296 is also visible at the upper right.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091106.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0911/ringdeep_CAHA_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Ring Nebula Deep Field",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0911/ringdeep_CAHA.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-12-06",
		"explanation": "QUASARs (QUASi-stellAR objects) lie near the edge of the observable Universe. Discovered in 1963, astronomers were astounded that such objects could be visible across billions of light-years, as this implies they must emit prodigious amounts of energy. Where does the energy come from? Many believe the quasar's central engine is a giant black hole fueled by tremendous amounts of infalling gas, dust, and stars. This gallery of quasar portraits from the Hubble Space Telescope offers a look at their local neighborhoods: the quasars themselves appear as the bright star-like objects with diffraction spikes. The images in the center and right hand columns reveal quasars associated with disrupted colliding and merging galaxies which should provide plenty of debris to feed a hungry black hole.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9611/qsohosts_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Quasar Portrait Gallery",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9611/qsohosts_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Adam Block",
		"date": "2014-01-24",
		"explanation": "Astronomers really don't find supernovae by looking for the arrows. But in this image taken January 23rd, an arrow does point to an exciting, new supernova, now cataloged as SN 2014J, in nearby bright galaxy M82. Located near the Big Dipper in planet Earth's sky, M82 is also known as the Cigar Galaxy, a popular target for telescopes in the northern hemisphere. In fact, SN 2014J was first spotted as an unfamiliar source in the otherwise familiar galaxy by teaching fellow Steve Fossey and astronomy workshop students Ben Cooke, Tom Wright, Matthew Wilde and Guy Pollack at the University College London Observatory on the evening of January 21. M82 is a mere 12 million light-years away (so the supernova explosion did happen 12 million years ago, that light just now reaching Earth), making supernova SN 2014J one of the closest to be seen in recent decades. Spectra indicate it is a Type Ia supernova caused by the explosion of a white dwarf accreting matter from a companion star. By some estimates one week away from its maximum brightness, SN 2014J is already the brightest part of M82 and visible in small telescopes in the evening sky.   Gallery: Supernova in M82",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1401/M82SN_ArrowBlock.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Bright Supernova in M82",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1401/M82SN_ArrowBlock950.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2007-12-12",
		"explanation": "The Martian rover Spirit is now in the race of its life.  The rolling robot is trying to reach an outpost to spend the winter, but it keeps getting bogged down in soft sand on Mars. Earth scientists hope that Spirit can reach a slope on the northern edge of the unusual feature dubbed Home Plate, before the end of this month when northern winter will be phasing in on Mars.   Reaching this slope will likely allow the rover to tilt enough toward the Sun to create a needed increase in the efficiency of its energy-absorbing solar panels.  This map shows the path of Spirit from July 2004 until just last month.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/spiritpath_hirise_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Mars Rover Races to Survive",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/spiritpath_hirise.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Glittering Lights",
		"date": "2012-09-07",
		"explanation": "South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars, millions of years young, radiate the nebula with invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms. The electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible nebular glow, dominated by the red emission of hydrogen. At an estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, the region shown is about 250 light-years across, spanning an area equivalent to four full moons on the sky. The nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, but seafood-loving astronomers might know this cosmic cloud as The Prawn Nebula.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1209/IC4628HaRGB_Lorenzi3000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1209/IC4628HaRGB_Lorenzi800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Peter WasilewskiGoddard Space Flight Center",
		"date": "2003-05-29",
		"explanation": "Scientific images of cosmic dust clouds or even frozen water can be esthetic too. In fact, this picture of thin layers of forming ice crystals uses a scientific understanding of light's wave properties solely for artistic purposes. Titled \"Illume\", the picture was created by astrophysicist Peter Wasilewski. To make the picture, the crystals were illuminated by light shining through a polarizing filter -- a filter that restricts the otherwise randomly oriented light waves to vibrate in only one direction.  While passing through the ice, different colors of the polarized light are then refracted and reflected along slightly different paths by the delicate crystalline layers. Viewing the scene with a second polarizing filter brings out the wondrous display of structure and color. Painting with \"light, the laws of physics, and an attitude\" Wasilewski has created a series of these evocative ice images that he refers to as Frozen Vision or Frizion.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0305/illume_wasilewski_full.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Frizion Illume",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0305/illume_wasilewski_full.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Don Goldman",
		"date": "2019-08-02",
		"explanation": "A small constellation hiding near the south celestial pole, The Chamaeleon boasts no bright stars. Stars are forming within its constellation boundaries though, in a complex of dark, dusty molecular clouds. Some 500 light-years distant, the Chamaeleon II dark nebula inhabits this view where the cosmic dust clouds standout mostly in silhouette against the starry southern sky. The telescopic frame is about the angular size of a Full Moon and so spans about 5 light-years at the dark cloud's estimated distance. Scattered near center a telltale reddish glow from identified Herbig-Haro objects is seen in the sharp image, jets of shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1908/Cha-II-Cloud-WebAstroDon.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Chamaeleon II Dark Cloud",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1908/Cha-II-Cloud-WebAstroDon1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Yuichi TakasakaTWAN",
		"date": "2019-10-27",
		"explanation": "What does this aurora look like to you? While braving the cold to watch the skies above northern Canada early one morning in 2013, a most unusual aurora appeared.  The aurora definitely appeared to be shaped like something , but what? Two ghostly possibilities recorded by the astrophotographer were \"witch\" and \"goddess of dawn\", but please feel free to suggest your own Halloween-enhanced impressions. Regardless of fantastical pareidolic interpretations, the pictured aurora had a typical green color and was surely caused by the scientifically commonplace action of high energy particles from space interacting with oxygen in Earth's upper atmosphere.  In the image foreground, at the bottom, is a frozen Alexandra Falls, while evergreen trees cross the middle.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1910/AuroraGhost_Takasaka_800.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Ghost Aurora over Canada",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1910/AuroraGhost_Takasaka_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2019-09-17",
		"explanation": "Where else might life exist?  One of humanity's great outstanding questions, locating planets where extrasolar life might survive took a step forward recently with the discovery of a significant amount of water vapor in the atmosphere of distant exoplanet K2-18b. The planet and it parent star, K2-18, lie about 124 light years away toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The exoplanet is significantly larger and more massive than our Earth, but orbits in the habitable zone of its home star. K2-18, although more red than our Sun, shines in K2-18b's sky with a brightness similar to the Sun in Earth's sky.  The discovery was made in data from three space telescopes: Hubble, Spitzer, and Kepler, by noting the absorption of water-vapor colors when the planet moved in front of the star.  The featured illustration imagines exoplanet K2-18b on the right, its parent red dwarf star K2-18 on the left, and an unconfirmed sister planet between them.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1909/K218b_ESAKornmesser_6000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Water Vapor Discovered on Distant Exoplanet",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1909/K218b_ESAKornmesser_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "STScIAAO",
		"date": "1996-02-18",
		"explanation": "Are these galaxies near the center of the largest gravitationally bound concentration of mass yet known?  Previously, the cluster of galaxies known as Abell 3627 was largely unstudied because dust in the disk of our own Galaxy obscured much of its light.  Several galaxies from Abell 3627 appear above as fuzzy blue patches behind many stars in our Galaxy. Recent observations by Renee Kraan-Korteweg (Paris Observatory) and collaborators, however, indicate that this cluster of galaxies is near the center of the huge nearby conglomeration of mass known as the Great Attractor. Evidence for this was uncovered in new accurate measurements of the large extent and nearby distance of Abell 3627.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0503/crab_xrayopt_c2.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Abell 3627 in the Great Attractor",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1401/ngc2207_hubble_2907.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2013-07-30",
		"explanation": "In 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered the NGC 2392.  From the ground, NGC 2392 resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood.  In 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged NGC 2392 in visible light, while the nebula was imaged in X-rays by the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2007. The above combined visible-X ray image, with X-rays emitted by central hot gas and shown in pink, was released last week. From space, the nebula displays gas clouds so complex they are not fully understood.  NGC 2392 is clearly a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above composed the outer layers of a Sun-like star only 10,000 years ago.  The inner filaments visible above are being ejected by strong wind of particles from the central star.  The outer disk contains unusual light-year long orange filaments. NGC 2392 Nebula spans about 1/3 of a light year and lies in our Milky Way Galaxy, about 3,000 light years distant, toward the constellation of the Twins (Gemini).",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1307/ngc2392_hubblechandra_3600.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 2392 from Hubble and Chandra",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1307/ngc2392_hubblechandra_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-12-24",
		"explanation": "Thinking about spending the Holiday Season in low Earth orbit? Astronaut John Blaha and his cosmonaut colleagues Valeri Korzun and Alexander Kaleri are doing just that onboard the Russian Mir spacestation. You can e-mail them Seasons Greetings. Blaha replaced Shanon Lucid as a Mir resident during the STS-79 mission flown by the Space Shuttle Atlantis and is scheduled to be replaced by Jerry Linenger when Atlantis makes another shuttle run to Mir during the STS-81 mission. The Mir is seen here 200 miles above the Earth as the sun sets following the latest Atlantis undocking. NASA shuttle flights to the Mir are part of the Phase 1 program for construction of the International Space Station.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9612/mir1_sts79_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Mirry Christmas\r\nCredit:",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9612/mir1_sts79.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Francisco Sojuel",
		"date": "2020-03-16",
		"explanation": "Why does Saturn appear so big? It doesn't -- what is pictured are foreground clouds on Earth crossing in front of the Moon. The Moon shows a slight crescent phase with most of its surface visible by reflected Earthlight known as ashen glow. The Sun directly illuminates the brightly lit lunar crescent from the bottom, which means that the Sun must be below the horizon and so the image was taken before sunrise.  This double take-inducing picture was captured on 2019 December 24, two days before the Moon slid in front of the Sun to create a solar eclipse. In the foreground, lights from small Guatemalan towns are visible behind the huge volcano Pacaya.   Follow APOD in English on: Instagram, Facebook,  Reddit, or Twitter",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/SaturnMoon_Sojuel_1824.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Moon Dressed Like Saturn",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/SaturnMoon_Sojuel_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Michael Miller",
		"date": "2016-06-10",
		"explanation": "NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This sharp telescopic portrait uses narrow band image data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. Visible within the nebula, NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years.  The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/NGC-6888-6-3-16MillerWalker2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/NGC-6888-6-3-16MillerWalker1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Brad GoldpaintGoldpaint Photography",
		"date": "2018-04-22",
		"explanation": "Did you see it?  One of the more common questions during a meteor shower occurs because the time it takes for a meteor to flash is typically less than the time it takes for a head to turn. Possibly, though, the glory of seeing bright meteors shoot across and knowing that they were once small granules on another world might make it all worthwhile, even if your observing partner(s) could not share in every particular experience. Peaking late tonight, a dark sky should enable the Lyrids meteor shower to exhibit as many as 20 visible meteors per hour from some locations. In the featured composite of nine exposures taken during the 2012 shower, a bright Lyrid meteor streaks above picturesque Crater Lake in Oregon, USA.  Snow covers the foreground, while the majestic central band of our home galaxy arches well behind the serene lake. Other meteor showers this year -- and every year -- include the Perseids in mid-August and the Leonids in mid-November.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/LyridCrater_Goldpaint_1920.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Meteor Over Crater Lake",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/LyridCrater_Goldpaint_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Astronomical Society of Linz",
		"date": "2018-05-15",
		"explanation": "Four hundred years ago today (May 15, 1618) Johannes Kepler discovered the simple mathematical rule governing the orbits of the solar system's planets, now recognized as Kepler's Third Law of planetary motion. At that time he was living in this tall house on The Hofgasse, a narrow street near the castle and main square of the city of Linz, Austria, planet Earth. The conclusive identification of this residence (Hofgasse 7) as the location of the discovery of his third law is a recent discovery itself. Erich Meyer of the Astronomical Society of Linz was able to solve the historical mystery, based in part on descriptions of Kepler's own observations of lunar eclipses. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, Kepler supported Galileo's discoveries and the Copernican system of planets orbiting the Sun instead of the Earth. He showed that planets move in ellipses around the Sun (Kepler's First Law), that planets move proportionally faster in their orbits when they are nearer the Sun (Kepler's Second Law), and that more distant planets take proportionally longer to orbit the Sun (Kepler's Third Law).",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1805/hofgasse7.JPG",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Kepler's House in Linz",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1805/hofgasse7_1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2008-02-26",
		"explanation": "Why did an acidic haze spread across Venus?  The unusual clouds were discovered last July by ESA's robotic Venus Express spacecraft currently orbiting Venus.  The bright and smooth haze was found by Venus Express to be rich in sulfuric acid, created when an unknown process lifted water vapor and sulphur dioxide from lower levels into Venus' upper atmosphere.  There, sunlight broke these molecules apart and some of them recombined into the volatile sulfuric acid.  Over the course of just a few days last July, the smooth acidic clouds spread from the South Pole of Venus across half the planet.  The above false-color picture of Venus was taken last July 23rd in ultraviolet light, and shows the unusual haze as relatively smooth regions across the image bottom. The cause of the dark streaks in the clouds is also not yet understood and is being researched.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080226.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0802/venussouth_vexpress_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Mysterious Acid Haze on Venus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0802/venussouth_vexpress.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1995-06-22",
		"explanation": "In 1972 Astronauts on the United States's last lunar mission, Apollo 17, took this picture looking back at the Earth on their way to the moon. The continents of Antarctica and Africa are visible below the delicate wisps of white clouds.  For more information see NASA NSSDC press release.  We keep an archive of previous Astronomy Pictures of the Day.   The sky is filled with breathtaking pictures, many of which are available on the World Wide Web. Each day we feature a different picture of some part of our fascinating universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.  Astronomy Picture of the Day is brought to you by  Robert Nemiroff and  Jerry Bonnell . Original material on this page is copyrighted to Robert J. Nemiroff and Jerry T. Bonnell.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/lagoon_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Earth from Apollo 17",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0107/dustframe_tes.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Jean-Charles\nCuillandre",
		"date": "2007-03-14",
		"explanation": "Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center?  First and foremost, M95 is one of the closer examples of a big and beautiful barred spiral galaxy.  Visible in the above recent image from the CFHT telescope in Hawaii, USA, are sprawling spiral arms delineate by open clusters of bright blue stars, lanes of dark dust, the diffuse glow of billions of faint stars, and a short bar across the galaxy center.  What intrigues many astronomers, however, is the circumnuclear ring around the galaxy center visible just outside the central bar.  Recent images by the Chandra X-ray Observatory have shown that X-ray light surrounding the ring is likely emission from recent supernovas.  Although the long term stability of the ring remains a topic of research, recent observations indicate its present brightness is at least enhanced by transient bursts of star formation. M95, also known as NGC 3351, spans about 50,000 light-years and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo).",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/m95_cfht_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Barred Spiral Galaxy M95",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/m95_cfht.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Wil Milan",
		"date": "1999-03-05",
		"explanation": "Galactic or open star clusters are relatively young. These swarms of bright stars are born near the plane of the Milky Way, but their numbers steadily dwindle as cluster members are strewn through the Galaxy by gravitational interactions. This bright open cluster, known as M46, is around 300 million years young and still contains a few hundred stars. Located about 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation Puppis, M46 is a familiar object to telescopic stargazers and also seems to contain a contradiction to its youthful status. The striking red patch of glowing gas above center in this lovely photograph is the planetary nebula NGC 2438 - a brief, final phase in the life of a solar-type star a few billion years old whose central reservoir of hydrogen fuel has been exhausted. In fact, NGC 2438 is estimated to be only 3,000 light-years distant and moves at a different speed than M46 cluster members. It likely represents a foreground object, only by chance appearing along our line of sight to young M46.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9903/m46_wilmilan_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "M46 And NGC 2438: Young And Old",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9903/m46_wilmilan.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Andrew Klinger",
		"date": "2019-06-05",
		"explanation": "The constellation of Orion is much more than three stars in a row. It is a direction in space that is rich with impressive nebulas. To better appreciate this well-known swath of sky, a new  long exposure image was taken over several clear nights in January, February and March. After 23 hours of camera time and untold hours of image processing, the featured collage in the light of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur was produced spanning over 40 times the angular diameter of the Moon.  Of the many interesting details that have become visible, one that particularly draws the eye is Barnard's Loop, the bright red orange arc just to the right of the image center.  The Rosette Nebula is not the giant orange nebula just to the left of the image center -- that is larger but lesser known nebula known as the Meissa Ring.  The Rosette Nebula is visible, though: it is the bright orange, blue and white nebula near the image bottom.  The bright orange star just left of the frame center is Betelgeuse, while the bright blue star on the upper right is Rigel. About those famous three stars that cross the belt of Orion the Hunter -- in this busy frame they can be hard to locate, but a discerning eye will find them just to the right of the image center.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1906/OrionDeep_Klinger_3181.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Interstellar Clouds of Orion",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1906/OrionDeep_Klinger_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2007-07-10",
		"explanation": "Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory. Their newly formed, bright, blue star clusters along beautiful, symmetric spiral arms are guaranteed to attract attention. But small irregular galaxies form stars too, like NGC 4449, located about 12 million light-years away. In fact, this sharp Hubble Space Telescope close-up of the well-studied galaxy clearly demonstrates that reddish star forming regions and young blue star clusters are widespread. Less than 20,000 light-years across, the small island universe is similar in size, and often compared to our Milky Way's satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. NGC 4449 is a member of a group of galaxies found in the constellation Canes Venatici.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0707/ngc4449_hst.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 4449: Close-Up of a Small Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0707/ngc4449_hst_c720.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Malcolm Park",
		"date": "2016-07-02",
		"explanation": "A camera fixed low to a tripod on a northern summer's eve captured the series of images used in this serene, southern Ontario skyscape. The lakeside view frames our fair galaxy above calm water and the night's quintessential luminous apparitions. But the trails of light are neither satellite glint, nor meteor flash, nor auroral glow. In the wide-field composite constructed with four consecutive 15 second exposures, a pulsing firefly enters at the right, first wandering toward the camera, then left and back toward the lake, the central Milky Way rising in the background.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1607/FireflyMilkyWayMPark1024.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Firefly Trails and the Summer Milky Way",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1607/FireflyMilkyWayMPark1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Eric Benson",
		"date": "2021-04-02",
		"explanation": "Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portr",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2104/NGC3521-LRGB-1.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2104/NGC3521-LRGB-1024c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Scott Rosen",
		"date": "2013-09-03",
		"explanation": "Here lie familiar shapes in unfamiliar locations. On the left is an emission nebula cataloged as NGC 7000, famous partly because it resembles our fair planet's continent of North America.  The emission region to the right of the North America Nebula is IC 5070, also known for its suggestive outlines as the Pelican Nebula.  Separated by a dark cloud of obscuring dust, the two bright nebulae are about 1,500 light-years away. At that distance, the 4 degree wide field of view spans 100 light-years. This spectacular cosmic portrait combines narrow band images to highlight bright ionization fronts with fine details of dark, dusty forms in silhouette. Emission from atomic hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen is captured in the narrow band data. These nebulae can be seen with binoculars from a dark location.  Look northeast of bright star Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.   No Textbook: Follow a Free Astronomy Course",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1309/northpelican_rosen_3460.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "North America and the Pelican",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1309/northpelican_rosen_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Yuri Beletsky",
		"date": "2017-02-03",
		"explanation": "Captured last April after sunset on a Chilean autumn night an exceptionally intense airglow flooded this scene. The panoramic skyscape is also filled with stars, clusters, and nebulae along the southern Milky Way including the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. Originating at an altitude similar to aurorae, the luminous airglow is due to chemiluminescence, the production of light through chemical excitation. Commonly recorded with a greenish tinge by sensitive digital cameras, both red and green airglow emission here is predominately from atmospheric oxygen atoms at extremely low densities and has often been present in southern hemisphere nights during the last few years. Like the Milky Way on that dark night the strong airglow was visible to the eye, but seen without color. Mars, Saturn, and bright star Antares in Scorpius form the celestial triangle anchoring the scene on the left. The road leads toward the 2,600 meter high mountain Cerro Paranal and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescopes.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1702/beletskYairglow_pano.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Milky Way with Airglow Australis",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1702/beletskYairglow_pano.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-07-16",
		"explanation": "The above artistic portrait of Saturn depicts how it might look from Titan, Saturn's largest moon. In the foreground sits ESA's Huygens probe, which will be released by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The Cassini mission to Saturn in currently planned for launch in late 1997. Cassini will reach Saturn in 2004 and will release the Huygens probe later that year. Titan is one of only two moons in the Solar System to have an atmosphere, It has been suggested Titan might have gasoline-like lakes, and may even harbor life.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1611/PIA08389_fig1_h500.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Portrait of Saturn from Titan",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0310/marsmoons_schedler_220803labeled.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Brad GoldpaintGoldpaint Photography",
		"date": "2012-04-25",
		"explanation": "Did you see it?  One of the more common questions during a meteor shower occurs because the time it takes for a meteor to flash is typically less than the time it takes for a head to turn. Possibly, though, the glory of seeing bright meteors shoot across and knowing that they were once small pebbles on another world might make it all worthwhile, even if your observing partner(s) could not share in every particular experience. Peaking over the past few days, a dark moonless sky allowed the Lyrids meteor shower to exhibit as many as 30 visible meteors per hour from some locations. A bright Lyrid meteor streaks above picturesque Crater Lake in Oregon, USA, in the above composite of nine exposures taken last week. Snow covers the foreground, while the majestic central band of our home galaxy arches well behind the serene lake. Other meteor showers this year include the Perseids in mid-August and the Leonids in mid-November, both expected to also dodge the glare of a bright Moon in 2012.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1204/lyridcrater_goldpaint_1200.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Meteor Over Crater Lake",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1204/lyridcrater_goldpaint_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-11-04",
		"explanation": "As spring comes to the northern latitudes of Mars, increased solar heating brings warmth and a change in the weather. The winds produced by the large temperature differences between the receding polar ice and the warming regions to the south may cause dust storms - like the one visible in the above Hubble Space Telescope images made in September this year. On the left, north is up and the Martian polar cap is seen at the top with dark regions along its southern border. The dust storm, about 600 miles wide, is visible against the white polar ice as a salmon colored notch. The image on the right presents the data showing the dust storm on a map grid centered on the north pole. Mars is famous for planet wide dust storms but studies of more localized weather patterns are difficult without high resolution images like those provided by the Hubble. As NASA prepares future missions to Mars, detailed studies of Martian weather patterns become increasingly important.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9611/marsds96_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Martian Spring\r\nCredit:",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9611/marsds96_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Leonid Durman",
		"date": "2008-08-18",
		"explanation": "Just before the Sun blacks out, something strange occurs. As the Moon moves to completely cover the Sun in a total solar eclipse, beads of bright sunlight stream around the edge of the Moon. This effect, known as Baily's beads, is named after Francis Baily who called attention to the phenomenon in 1836.  Although, the number and brightness of Baily's beads used to be unpredictable, today the Moon is so well mapped that general features regarding Baily's beads are expected. When a single bead dominates, it is called the diamond ring effect, and is typically seen just before totality.  Pictured above, a series of images recorded Baily's beads at times surrounding the recent total solar eclipse visible from Novosibirsk, Russia. The complete series can be seen by scrolling right. At the end of totality, as the Sun again emerges from behind the moon, Baily's beads may again be visible -- but now on the other side of the Moon.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080818.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0808/bailysbeads_durman_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Baily's Beads near Solar Eclipse Totality",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0808/bailysbeads_durman.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Ralph Encarnacion",
		"date": "2003-07-29",
		"explanation": "ven a quiet Sun is a busy place.  The above image, taken in a single color of light called Hydrogen Alpha, records a great amount of detail of the simmering surface of our parent star.  The gradual darkening towards the Sun's edge, called limb darkening, is caused by increased absorption of relatively cool solar gas.  Further over the edge, a giant prominence is visible, while a different prominence can be seen in silhouette as the dark streak near the image center.  Two active areas of the Sun are marked by bright plages.  The above amateur photograph of the Sun was taken just last month through a small telescope and a standard digital camera.  In contrast, there are times when our Sun appears much more active.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0307/orangesun_encarnacion.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Orange Sun Simmering",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0307/orangesun_encarnacion_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-12-14",
		"explanation": "Tune your radio telescope to 408MHz (408 million cycles per second) and check out the Radio Sky! You should find that frequency on your dial somewhere between US broadcast television channels 13 and 14. In the 1970s large dish antennas at three radio observatories, Jodrell Bank, MPIfR, and Parkes Observatory, were used to do just that - the data were combined to map the entire sky. Near this frequency, cosmic radio waves are generated by high energy electrons spiraling along magnetic fields. In the resulting false color image, the galactic plane runs horizontally through the center, but no stars are visible. Instead, many of the bright sources near the plane are distant pulsars, star forming regions, and supernova remnants, while the grand looping structures are pieces of bubbles blown by local stellar activity. External galaxies like Centaurus A, located above the plane to the right of center, and the LMC (below and right) also shine in the radio sky.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/ngc346_hst_c25.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Radio Sky: Tuned to 408MHz",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9710/m29_hjh.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "C�sar Vega Toledano Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt",
		"date": "2015-05-25",
		"explanation": "First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca, Spain, the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned.  Next came the galaxy. The photographer stayed up until 2 am, waiting until the Milky Way Galaxy rose above the level of a majestic looking oak.  From this carefully chosen perspective, dust lanes in the galaxy appear to be natural continuations to branches of the tree.  Last came the light. A flashlight was used on the far side of the tree to project a silhouette. By coincidence, other trees also appeared as similar silhouettes across the relatively bright horizon. The featured image was captured as a single 30-second frame earlier this month and processed to digitally enhance the Milky Way.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1505/MWTree_Toledano_6016.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Galaxy Tree",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1505/MWTree_Toledano_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Stefano Cancelli",
		"date": "2012-11-09",
		"explanation": "Cosmic clouds seem to form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. Of course, the clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars are toward the right in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrow and broad band telescopic images, the view spans about 30 light-years and includes emission from hydrogen in green, sulfur in red, and oxygen in blue hues. Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline suggests its popular name - The Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1211/Mel15cancellimortfield.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Melotte 15 in the Heart",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1211/Mel15cancellimortfield900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Francis Bozon",
		"date": "2021-03-20",
		"explanation": "This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC 3628 (right), M66 (upper left), and M65 (bottom). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure.  Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky in a frame that covers over half a million light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years. Of course the spiky foreground stars lie well within our own Milky Way.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/TrioduLionLRVB_FrancisBozon.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Leo Trio",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/TrioduLionLRVB_FrancisBozon1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Giovanni Benintende",
		"date": "2009-07-01",
		"explanation": "This intriguing trio of galaxies is sometimes called the Draco Group, located in the northern constellation of (you guessed it) Draco. From left to right are edge-on spiral NGC 5981, elliptical galaxy NGC 5982, and face-on spiral NGC 5985 -- all within this single telescopic field of view spanning a little more than half the width of the full moon. While the group is far too small to be a galaxy cluster and has not been cataloged compact group, these galaxies all do lie roughly 100 million light-years from planet Earth. On close examination with spectrographs, the bright core of the striking face-on spiral NGC 5985 shows prominent emission in specific wavelengths of light, prompting astronomers to classify it as a Seyfert, a type of active galaxy. Not as well known as other tight groupings of galaxies, the contrast in visual appearance makes this triplet an attractive subject for astrophotographers. This impressively deep exposure of the region also reveals faint and even more distant background galaxies.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090701.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0907/NGC5982_benintende_h.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Three Galaxies in Draco",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0907/NGC5982_benintende.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2017-02-07",
		"explanation": "Why is the Lobster Nebula forming some of the most massive stars known? No one is yet sure.  Near the more obvious Cat's Paw nebula on the upper right, the Lobster Nebula, on the lower left and cataloged as NGC 6357, houses the open star cluster Pismis 24, home to these tremendously bright and blue stars.  The overall red glow near the inner star forming region results from the emission of ionized hydrogen gas.   The surrounding nebula, featured here, holds a complex tapestry of gas, dark dust, stars still forming, and newly born stars.  The intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity.  The full zoomable version of this image contains about two billion pixels, making it one of the largest space images ever released.  NGC 6357 spans about 400 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1702/LobsterCat_VLT_4000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 6357: The Lobster Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1702/LobsterCat_VLT_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Digital-Astronomy",
		"date": "2010-04-22",
		"explanation": "rlier this month, Venus and Mercury climbed into the western twilight, entertaining skygazers around planet Earth in a lovely conjunction of evening stars. Combining 8 images spanning April 4 through April 15, this composite tracks their progress through skies above Portsmouth, UK. Each individual image was captured at 19:50 UT. The sequential path for both bright planets begins low and to the left. But while Venus continues to swing away from the setting Sun, moving higher above the western horizon, Mercury first rises then falls. Its highest point is from the image taken on April 11. Of course on April 15, Venus and Mercury were joined by a young crescent Moon.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1004/April2010MerVenSeq_lawrence.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Venus, Mercury, and Moon",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1004/April2010MerVenSeq_lawrenceC900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Göran Strand",
		"date": "2014-06-13",
		"explanation": "June's Full Moon (full phase on June 13, 0411 UT) is traditionally known as the Strawberry Moon or Rose Moon. Of course those names might also describe the appearance of this Full Moon, rising last month over the small Swedish village of Marieby. The Moon looks large in the image because the scene was captured with a long focal length lens from a place about 8 kilometers from the foreground houses. But just by eye a Full Moon rising, even on Friday the 13th, will appear to loom impossibly large near the horizon. That effect has long been recognized as the Moon Illusion. Unlike the magnification provided by a telescope or telephoto lens, the cause of the Moon illusion is still poorly understood and not explained by atmospheric optical effects, such as scattering and refraction. Those effects do produce the Moon's blushing color and ragged edge also seen in the photograph.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1406/GS_20140514_FullMoon_5015_p1500.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Strawberry Moon",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1406/GS_20140514_FullMoon_5015_p950.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Umar MohideenU. California at Riverside",
		"date": "2010-01-03",
		"explanation": "This tiny ball provides evidence that the universe will expand forever.  Measuring slightly over one tenth of a millimeter, the ball moves toward a smooth plate in response to energy fluctuations in the vacuum of empty space.  The attraction is known as the Casimir Effect, named for its discoverer, who, 50 years ago, was trying to understand why fluids like mayonnaise move so slowly.  Today, evidence is accumulating that most of the energy density in the universe is in an unknown form dubbed dark energy.  The form and genesis of dark energy is almost completely unknown, but postulated as related to vacuum fluctuations similar to the Casimir Effect but generated somehow by space itself.  This vast and mysterious dark energy appears to gravitationally repel all matter and hence will likely cause the universe to expand forever.  Understanding vacuum fluctuations is on the forefront of research not only to better understand our universe but also for stopping micro-mechanical machine parts from sticking together.   Note: An APOD editor will review astronomy images of 2009, hosted by the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York on Friday, January 8 at the American Museum of Natural History, NYC.  digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100103.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9904/moreton_halpha_eit.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Force from Empty Space: The Casimir Effect",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1001/casimirsphere_mohideen.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1995-10-31",
		"explanation": "Orson Welles became an instant legend on Halloween in 1938 for his radio dramatization of H.G. Wells' \"War of the Worlds\". Some listeners who did not realize it was a theatrical production were driven to near panic by this fictional account of invaders from Mars. In the story, as in the above Hubble Space Telescope image, Mars was at \"opposition\", its point of closest approach to the Earth, a distance of some 65 million miles. For the Martians, it was imagined that this was a good time to invade.  For astronomers, opposition is a good time to study the red planet and this HST image, represents the clearest view of Mars ever for an Earth telescope. The icy north polar cap is visible at the top of the picture as well as a veil of white clouds along the planet's left edge.  The dark markings represent areas where the reddish tinged dust characteristic of the surface has been blown away by the Martian winds.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0606/willie_bov_panorama2.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Halloween Invasion from Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0606/willie_bov_panorama2_80.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Joshua Cripps",
		"date": "2020-02-10",
		"explanation": "What's happening behind that camel? A partial eclipse of the Sun. About six and a half weeks ago, the Moon passed completely in front of the Sun as seen from a narrow band on the Earth. Despite (surely) many camels being located in this narrow band, only one found itself stationed between this camera, the distant Moon, and the even more distant Sun. To create this impressive superposition, though, took a well-planned trip to the United Arab Emirates, careful alignments, and accurate timings on the day of the eclipse.  Although the resulting featured image shows a partially eclipsed Sun rising, the Moon went on to appear completely engulfed by the Sun in an annular eclipse known as a ring of fire.  Forward scattering of sunlight, dominated by quantum mechanical diffraction, gives the camel hair and rope fray an unusual glow.  The next solar eclipse is also an annular eclipse and will occur this coming June.   News: Solar Orbiter Launched",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2002/EclipseCamel_Cripps_2560.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Solar Eclipse over the UAE",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2002/EclipseCamel_Cripps_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-03-11",
		"explanation": "No spacecraft from Earth has yet explored Pluto but astronomers have found ways of mapping its surface. A stunning map of this distant, diminutive planet, the first based on direct images, was revealed late last week in a Hubble Space Telescope press release. Above are two opposite hemisphere views of the computer constructed map of Pluto's surface (north is up). The grid pattern is due to the computer technique used where each grid element is over 100 miles across. The map is based on Hubble images made when Pluto was a mere 3 billion miles distant. It shows strong brightness variations - confirming and substantially improving upon ground based observations. While the brightness variations may be due to surface features like craters and basins they are more likely caused by regions of nitrogen and methane frost. The frost regions should show \"seasonal\" changes which can be tracked in future Hubble observations. Yes, Pluto is a planet even though it is only 2/3 the size of Earth's Moon!   Information: The Scale of the Universe Debate in April 1996",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0301/iosunset_galileo.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Hubble Telescope Maps Pluto",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0707/nycsunset_tyson_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2002-04-07",
		"explanation": "In 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered  NGC 2392.  From the ground, NGC 2392 resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood.  In 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged  NGC 2392.   From space, the nebula displays gas clouds so complex they are not fully understood.   NGC 2392 is clearly a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above composed the outer layers of a Sun-like star only 10,000 years ago.  The inner filaments visible above are being ejected by strong wind of particles from the central star.  The outer disk contains unusual light-year long orange filaments.  NGC 2392 lies about 5000 light-years away and is visible with a small telescope in the constellation of Gemini.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0204/ngc2392_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 2392 from Hubble",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0204/ngc2392_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Jimmy WestlakeColorado Mountain College",
		"date": "2003-08-09",
		"explanation": "Just after the Moon set but before the Sun rose in the early morning hours of 2000 August 12, meteors pelted the Earth from the direction of the constellation  Perseus, while ions pelted the Earth from the Sun.  The meteors were expected as sub-sand grains long left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle annually create the Perseids Meteor Shower.  The aurorae were unexpected, however, as electrons, protons, and heavier ions raced out from a large Coronal Mass Ejection that had occurred just days before on the Sun.  In the foreground is Hahn's Peak, an extinct volcano in Colorado, USA. The Perseid meteor shower peaks this year over the next few days, with as much as one bright meteor per minute visible from some locations.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0008/perseidaurora_westlake_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Perseid Aurora",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0008/perseidaurora_westlake.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Rich Richins",
		"date": "2010-06-17",
		"explanation": "Of the many comets named for discoverer Robert McNaught, the one cataloged as C/2009 R1 is gracing dawn skies for northern hemisphere observers this month.  Seen here on June 13th from southern New Mexico, this Comet McNaught's long ion tail sweeps across the telescopic field of view (a negative image is inset). Remarkably, the ion tail easily stretches past background star cluster NGC 1245 (upper left) in the constellation Perseus, about 1.5 degrees from the comet's lovely greenish head or coma. The coma also sports a short, stubby, dust tail. Of course, the comet and background stars move at different rates through planet Earth's skies. But a digital processing of many short exposures allowed frames of comet and stars to be separated, registered, and recombined in the final image. To see the comet separate from the background stars, just slide your cursor over the image. The recombined frames show off both the rich star field and faint details of the comet. Easy to spot in binoculars for now, McNaught will sink into the twilight along the eastern horizon in the coming days as it heads toward perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on July 2.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1006/CometMcNaught2009R1a_richins.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Comet McNaught Passes NGC 1245",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1006/CometStarsInset_richins900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-11-01",
		"explanation": "Will spacecraft Hayabusa2 be able to land safely on asteroid Ryugu? Since arriving in June, pictures show that the surface of kilometer-sized Ryugu is covered with boulders, so that finding a flat enough area for the bus-sized spacecraft to touch down is proving a challenge. In the featured video, the shadow of Japan's robotic Hayabusa2 can be seen on the rugged face of Ryugu while ascending last week from a touchdown rehearsal only 20 meters over the surface.  Previously, small frisbee-sized landers detached from Hayabusa2, made contact with the diamond-shaped asteroid's surface, and started hopping around.  Studying Ryugu could tell humanity not only about the minor planet's surface and interior, but about what materials were available in the early Solar System for the development of life.  The touchdown of the Hayabusa2 mother ship is slated for early next year, hopefully followed by a soil sample collection for return to Earth.",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Hayabusa2 Ascends from Asteroid Ryugu",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0102/allsky_mellinger_c2.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Jos� Jim�nez Priego",
		"date": "2015-12-16",
		"explanation": "The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky.  It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula in the center of the above photograph.  The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque dust cloud that lies in front of the bright red emission nebula. Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere, this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance.  After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud will surely alter its appearance.  The emission nebula's red color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form hydrogen atoms.  On the image left is the Flame Nebula, an orange-tinged nebula that also contains filaments of dark dust. Just to the lower left of the Horsehead nebula featured picture is a blueish reflection nebulae that preferentially reflects the blue light from nearby stars.   Free APOD Lectures: Editor to Speak in January in Philadelphia and New York City",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1512/HorseFlame_Priego_3252.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Horsehead Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1512/HorseFlame_Priego_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "TuncTezel",
		"date": "2007-10-02",
		"explanation": "If you went outside at exactly the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun appear to move?  With great planning and effort, such a series of images can be taken.   The figure-8 path the Sun follows over the course of a year is called an analemma.  With even greater planning and effort, the series can include a total eclipse of the Sun as one of the images. Pictured is such a total solar eclipse analemma or Tutulemma - a term coined by the photographers based on the Turkish word for eclipse. The composite image sequence was recorded from Turkey starting in 2005. The base image for the sequence is from the total phase of a solar eclipse as viewed from Side, Turkey on 2006 March 29. Venus was also visible during totality, toward the lower right.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0710/tutulemma2_tezel_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Tutulemma: Solar Eclipse Analemma",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0710/tutulemma2_tezel.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Janus Team",
		"date": "2018-05-10",
		"explanation": "Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy practices galactic cannibalism, absorbing small galaxies that get too close and are captured by the Milky Way's gravity. In fact, the practice is common in the universe and illustrated by this striking pair of interacting galaxies from the banks of the southern constellation Eridanus, The River. Located over 50 million light years away, the large, distorted spiral NGC 1532 is seen locked in a gravitational struggle with dwarf galaxy NGC 1531 (right of center), a struggle the smaller galaxy will eventually lose. Seen edge-on, spiral NGC 1532 spans about 100,000 light-years. Nicely detailed in this sharp image, the NGC 1532/1531 pair is thought to be similar to the well-studied system of face-on spiral and small companion known as M51.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1805/NGC1532Meunier2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Galaxies in the River",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1805/NGC1532Meunier1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Marco Lorenzi",
		"date": "2015-09-10",
		"explanation": "The delightful Dark Doodad Nebula drifts through southern skies, a tantalizing target for binoculars in the constellation Musca, The Fly. The dusty cosmic cloud is seen against rich starfields just south of the prominent Coalsack Nebula and the Southern Cross. Stretching for about 3 degrees across this scene the Dark Doodad is punctuated at its southern tip (lower left) by globular star cluster NGC 4372. Of course NGC 4372 roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy, a background object some 20,000 light-years away and only by chance along our line-of-sight to the Dark Doodad. The Dark Doodad's well defined silhouette belongs to the Musca molecular cloud, but its better known alliterative moniker was first coined by astro-imager and writer Dennis di Cicco in 1986 while observing Comet Halley from the Australian outback. The Dark Doodad is around 700 light-years distant and over 30 light-years long.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1509/Dark_Doodad_LRGB_lorenzi2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1509/Dark_Doodad_LRGB_lorenzi1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-06-14",
		"explanation": "What does the universe nearby look like? This plot shows nearly 50,000 galaxies in the nearby universe detected by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) in infrared light. The resulting image is anincredible tapestry of galaxies that provides limits on how the universe formed and evolved.  The dark band across the image center is blocked by dust in the  plane of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Away from the Galactic plane, however, each dot represents a  galaxy, color coded to indicate distance.  Bluer dots represent the nearer galaxies in the 2MASS survey, while redder dots indicating the more distant survey galaxies that lie at a redshift near 0.1.  Named structures are annotated around the edges.  Many galaxies are gravitationally bound together to form clusters, which themselves are loosely bound into superclusters, which in turn are sometimes seen to align over even larger scale structures.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1106/lss2_2mass_3759.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Universe Nearby",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1106/lss2_2mass_900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2001-01-08",
		"explanation": "The large Martian crater above just left of center: is this a fresh crater, a degraded crater, or a ghost crater?  Complex image recognition tasks like these are currently done more reliably by a human than a computer.  Additionally, there are so many craters on Mars that NASA just doesn't have enough people to classify them all!  Therefore, you can help humanity's understanding of the surface of Mars by volunteering to classify craters.  All you need for this pilot study is a proper web browser and a mouse.  If asked to classify the above crater, you might best respond that it appears relatively fresh, as it exhibits a sharp rim and a well-preserved interior.  Degraded craters are typically older and have their rims more rounded, while \"ghost craters\" are the oldest of all and only faintly discernable.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0101/marscrater_nasa.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Help NASA Classify Martian Craters",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0101/marscrater_nasa_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2013-02-11",
		"explanation": "Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies.  Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).  The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition.  Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus.  Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation.  Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1302/ngc1763_lake_1600.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "N11: Star Clouds of the LMC",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1302/ngc1763_lake_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-12-16",
		"explanation": "Like the Earth's Moon, Mercury is scarred with craters testifying to an intense bombardment during the early history of the Solar System. In 1974, the Mariner 10 spacecraft surveyed this innermost planet up close, producing the only detailed images of its tortured surface. In the above mosaic the bright rays emanating from the 45 kilometer wide Degas crater almost appear to be painted on. The rays consist of light colored material blasted out during the crater's formation. Craters older than Degas are covered by the ray material while younger craters are seen superimposed on the rays. Mercury's gravity and density are about twice that of Earth's Moon so such bright ray craters on the lunar surface tend to be much larger. NASA plans to launch MESSENGER to the least explored terrestrial planet in 2004.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0012/degas_merc_mar10_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Degas Ray Crater on Mercury",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0012/degas_merc_mar10.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2020-03-30",
		"explanation": "What creates Saturn's colors?  The featured picture of Saturn only slightly exaggerates what a human would see if hovering close to the giant ringed world.   The image was taken in 2005 by the robot Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017.  Here Saturn's majestic rings appear directly only as a curved line, appearing brown, in part, from its infrared glow.  The rings best show their complex structure in the dark shadows they create across the upper part of the planet.   The northern hemisphere of Saturn can appear partly blue for the same reason that Earth's skies can appear blue -- molecules in the cloudless portions of both planet's atmospheres are better at scattering blue light than red.  When looking deep into Saturn's clouds, however, the natural gold hue of Saturn's clouds becomes dominant.   It is not known why southern Saturn does not show the same blue hue -- one hypothesis holds that clouds are higher there.   It is also not known why some of Saturn's clouds are colored gold.   Activities: NASA Science at Home",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/SaturnColors_CassiniSchmidt_1000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Colors of Saturn from Cassini",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/SaturnColors_CassiniSchmidt_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-02-16",
		"explanation": "On February 14th, the NEAR spacecraft became the first artificial moon of an asteroid. Captured by the gentle gravity of a 20 mile long slipper-shaped mountain of rock, NEAR recorded this premier image while orbiting asteroid 433 Eros at a distance of about 200 miles. The image shows features as small as 100 feet across in a view dominated by a 3 mile wide crater near Eros' narrow waist. Enticing layers and grooves are visible within the crater rim along with an enormous 170 foot boulder lying on the crater floor (near picture center). Although Eros is a large S-type near-earth asteroid, it is still not massive enough for its own gravity to have shaped it into a planet-like spherical form. By comparison, Eros has less than a thousandth Earth's gravity, so a 100 pound object on Earth would weigh about 1 ounce on Eros. A baseball thrown at 22 miles per hour would completely escape into space. The weak gravity and irregular shape make orbiting Eros a delicate challenge for NEAR's controllers who plan a year long exploration program with possible close approaches to the asteroid's surface.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0002/erosorbit1_near_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Eros From Orbit",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0002/erosorbit1_near.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2013-12-25",
		"explanation": "What does the Martian moon Phobos look like? To better visualize this unusual object, images from ESA's Mars Express orbiter have been combined into a virtual rotation movie. The rotation is actually a digital illusion -- tidally-locked Phobos always keeps the same face toward its home planet, as does Earth's moon. The above video highlights Phobos' chunky shape and an unusually dark surface covered with craters and grooves. What lies beneath the surface is a topic of research since the moon is not dense enough to be filled with solid rock. Phobos is losing about of centimeter of altitude a year and is expected to break up and crash onto Mars within the next 50 million years. To better understand this unusual world, Mars Express is on course to make the closest flyby ever on Sunday.",
		"media_type": "video",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Phobos 360",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0612/casimirsphere_mohideen.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1999-04-23",
		"explanation": "Orbiting Jupiter once every 43 hours, the volcanic moon Io cruises 500,000 kilometers above swirling, banded cloud-tops. Orbiting Earth once every 1.5 hours, the Hubble Space Telescope watched as Io accompanied by its shadow crossed the face of the reigning gas giant planet in 1997. This and other sharp false-color images have recently been chosen to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the Hubble's launch (April 24, 1990). Reflective patches of sulfur dioxide \"frost\" are visible on Io's surface while Io's round dark shadow is seen passing over brownish white regions of Jupiter's high altitude haze and clouds. In October and November of this year, the Galileo spacecraft currently operating in the Jovian system is scheduled to make two daring close approaches to Io, possibly flying through a volcanic plume.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9904/ioshadowc_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Io Shadow",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9904/ioshadowc_hst1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2001-08-16",
		"explanation": "Its core hidden from optical view by a thick lane of dust, the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A was among the first objects observed by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. Astronomers were not disappointed, as Centaurus A's appearance in x-rays makes its classification as an active galaxy easy to appreciate. Perhaps the most striking feature of this Chandra false-color x-ray view is the jet, 30,000 light-years long. Blasting toward the upper left corner of the picture, the jet seems to arise from the galaxy's bright central x-ray source -- suspected of harboring a black hole with a million or so times the mass of the Sun. Centaurus A is also seen to be teeming with other individual x-ray sources and a pervasive, diffuse x-ray glow. Most of these individual sources are likely to be neutron stars or solar mass black holes accreting material from their less exotic binary companion stars. The diffuse high-energy glow represents gas throughout the galaxy heated to temperatures of millions of degrees C. At 11 million light-years distant in the constellation Centaurus, Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is the closest active galaxy.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0108/cena_cxo_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Centaurus A: X-Rays from an Active Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0108/cena_cxo_g1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Harel Boren",
		"date": "2012-03-08",
		"explanation": "A broad expanse of glowing gas and dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker - The Seagull Nebula. This portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 1.6 degree wide swath across the plane of the Milky Way, near the direction of Sirius, alpha star of the constellation Canis Major. Of course, the region includes objects with other catalog designations: notably NGC 2327, a compact, dusty emission region with an embedded massive star that forms the bird's head (aka the Parrot Nebula, above center). IC 2177 forms the sweeping arc of the seagull's wings. Dominated by the reddish glow of atomic hydrogen, the complex of gas and dust clouds with bright young stars spans over 100 light-years at an estimated 3,800 light-year distance.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1203/IC2177Seagull_boren1500.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Seagull Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1203/IC2177Seagull_boren900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Josep Drudis",
		"date": "2017-08-24",
		"explanation": "The Eagle Nebula and the Swan Nebula span this broad starscape, a telescopic view toward the Sagittarius spiral arm and the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Eagle, also known as M16, is at top and M17, the Swan, at bottom of the frame showing the cosmic clouds as brighter regions of active star-formation. They lie along the spiral arm suffused with reddish emission charactistic of atomic hydrogen gas, and dusty dark nebulae. M17, also called the Omega Nebula, is about 5500 light-years away, while M16 is some 6500 light-years distant. The center of both nebulae are locations of well-known close-up images of star formation from the Hubble Space Telescope. In this mosaic image that extends about 3 degrees across the sky, narrowband, high-resultion image data has been used to enhance the central regions of the Eagle and Swan. The extended wings of the Eagle Nebula spread almost 120 light-years. The Swan is over 30 light-years across.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1708/m16-m17-toa3-mosaic-crfl-final17-cc.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Eagle and The Swan",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1708/m16-m17-toa3-mosaic-crfl-final17-cc900c.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Tunc Tezel",
		"date": "2018-09-29",
		"explanation": "For 55 consecutive nights Mediterranean skies were at least partly clear this summer, from the 1st of July to the 24th of August 2018. An exposure from each night was incorporated in this composited telephoto and telescopic image to follow bright planet Saturn as it wandered through the generous evening skies. Through August, the outer planet's seasonal apparent retrograde motion slowed and drifted to the right, framed by a starry background. That brought it near the line-of-sight to the central Milky Way, and the beautiful Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20) nebulae. Of course Saturn's largest moon Titan was also along for the ride. Swinging around the gas giant in a 16 day long orbit, Titan's resulting wave-like motion is easier to spot when the almost-too-bright Saturn is digitally edited from the scene.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1809/Saturn2018hd.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "55 Nights with Saturn",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1809/Saturn2018hd1067.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2003-12-10",
		"explanation": "Cassini, a robot spacecraft launched in 1997 by NASA, is close enough now to resolve many rings and moons of its destination planet: Saturn.  The spacecraft has now closed to within a single Earth-Sun separation from the ringed giant. Early last month, Cassini snapped the contrast-enhanced color composite pictured above.  Many features of Saturn's rings and cloud-tops now show considerable detail. When arriving at Saturn in July 2004, the Cassini orbiter will begin to circle and study the Saturnian system.  Several months later, a probe named Huygens will separate and attempt to land on the surface of Titan.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0312/saturnpreview_cassini_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Cassini Approaches Saturn",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0312/saturnpreview_cassini.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert Gendler",
		"date": "2014-08-13",
		"explanation": "It is a familiar sight to sky enthusiasts with even a small telescope. There is much more to the Ring Nebula (M57), however, than can be seen through a small telescope.  The easily visible central ring is about one light-year across, but this remarkably deep exposure - a collaborative effort combining data from three different large telescopes - explores the looping filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the nebula's central star. This remarkable composite image includes narrowband hydrogen image, visible light emission, and infrared light emission. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from a dying, sun-like star. The Ring Nebula is about 2,000 light-years away toward the musical constellation Lyra.   Follow APOD on: Facebook,  Google Plus, or Twitter",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1408/m57_nasagendler_3000.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Rings Around the Ring Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1408/m57_nasagendler_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-08-14",
		"explanation": "Details of the crazed cracks criss-crossing Europa's frozen surface are apparent in this mosaic of the Galileo spacecraft's latest images of Jupiter's ice-covered moon. Curious white stripes, also seen by Voyager, are clearly visible marking the center of the wide dark fractures.  One theory suggests that \"dirty geysers\" erupting along the cracks deposited darker material followed by a flow of cleaner water ice which produced the stripe. The above image also shows an impact crater about 18.5 miles in diameter surrounded by white ejecta (lower left) and a curving x-pattern at bottom left which suggests fractures between icy plates filled with slush frozen in place.  Is there now or was there ever liquid water beneath Europa's surface? These latest results still hold out that possibility -- and so the possibility of life. Europa, along with Mars and Saturn's moon Titan is considered to be one of the few places in our Solar System, beyond Earth, where primitive life forms could have developed. Galileo's close flyby of this tantalizing moon is scheduled for December of this year.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/europa1_gal_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Galileo Explores Europa",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1507/2015Jul8_plutoNH_nasajhuaplswri950.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-07-07",
		"explanation": "The six wheeled robot rover Mars Sojourner rolled onto the martian surface on July 5th (Sol 2) at about 10:40 PM Pacific Daylight Time. This image confirms that its descent down the lander's rear deployment ramp was successful. Click on the image to download a \"movie gif\" constructed from 9 images taken by the Sagan Memorial Station's IMP camera which shows the rover rolling down the ramp! The rover moved only a short distance from the ramp and spent the night analyzing the martian soil with its Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer. Its next destination will be a tantalizing rock about 1 foot away that scientists have named \"Barnacle Bill\". A slow but steady off-road vehicle powered by a 1.9 square foot solar array, the rover can negotiate obstacles tilted at a 45 degree angle and travels at less than half an inch per second or nearly 0.03 miles per hour.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9707/rover_movie.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Sojourner On Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9707/mars4_pathfinder.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Brad GoldpaintGoldpaint Photography",
		"date": "2016-08-08",
		"explanation": "Where are all of these meteors coming from?  In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Perseus.  That is why the meteor shower that peaks later this week is known as the Perseids -- the meteors all appear to came from a radiant toward Perseus. In terms of parent body, though, the sand-sized debris that makes up the Perseids meteors come from Comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet follows a well-defined orbit around our Sun, and the part of the orbit that approaches Earth is superposed in front of the Perseus. Therefore, when Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris appears in Perseus. Featured here, a composite image containing over 60 meteors from last August's Perseids meteor shower shows many bright meteors that streaked over Mount Shasta, California, USA.  This year's Perseids holds promise to be the best meteor shower of the year.   Transparent Science:  Browse 1,300+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1608/PerseidsRadiant_Goldpaint_2500.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Perseid Meteors over Mount Shasta",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1608/PerseidsRadiant_Goldpaint_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert D. LossCEMS",
		"date": "2005-02-20",
		"explanation": "The remnants of nuclear reactors nearly two billion years old were found in the 1970s in Africa.  These reactors are thought to have occurred naturally. No natural reactors exist today, as the relative density of fissile uranium has now decayed below that needed for a sustainable reaction.  Pictured above is Fossil Reactor 15, located in Oklo, Gabon.  Uranium oxide remains are visible as the yellowish rock.  Oklo by-products are being used today to probe the stability of the fundamental constants over cosmological time-scales and to develop more effective means for disposing of human-manufactured nuclear waste.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1710/3c75_chandraNRAO_576.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Oklo: Ancient African Nuclear Reactors",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0210/oklo15_curtin.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Joey Mole",
		"date": "2017-09-03",
		"explanation": "What's happening over the water?  Pictured here is one of the better images yet recorded of a waterspout, a type of tornado that occurs over water.  Waterspouts are spinning columns of rising moist air that typically form over warm water. Waterspouts can be as dangerous as tornadoes and can feature wind speeds over 200 kilometers per hour.  Some waterspouts form away from thunderstorms and even during relatively fair weather.  Waterspouts may be relatively transparent and initially visible only by an unusual pattern they create on the water.  The featured image was taken in 2013 July near Tampa Bay, Florida. The Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida is arguably the most active area in the world for waterspouts, with hundreds forming each year.  Some people speculate that waterspouts are responsible for some of the losses recorded in the Bermuda Triangle.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1709/waterspout_mole_540.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Waterspout in Florida",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1709/waterspout_mole_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2007-09-08",
		"explanation": "Launched thirty years ago, NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are now respectively 15 and 12.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, equivalent to about 14 and 11.5 light-hours distant. Still functioning, the Voyagers are being tracked and commanded through the Deep Space Network. Having traveled beyond the outer planets, they are only the third and fourth spacecraft from planet Earth to escape toward interstellar space, following in the footsteps of Pioneer 10 and 11. A 12-inch gold plated copper disk (a phonograph record) containing recorded sounds and images representing human cultures and life on Earth, is affixed to each Voyager - a message in a bottle cast into the cosmic sea. The recorded material was selected by a committee chaired by astronomer Carl Sagan. Simple diagrams on the cover symbolically represent the spacecraft's origin and give instructions for playing the disk. The exotic construction of the disks should provide them with a long lifetime as they coast through interstellar space.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0709/record_voyager_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Voyagers' Message in a Bottle",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0709/record_voyager.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Petr Horálek",
		"date": "2020-08-10",
		"explanation": "Where are all these meteors coming from?  In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Perseus.  That is why the meteor shower that peaks tomorrow night is known as the Perseids -- the meteors all appear to came from a radiant toward Perseus. In terms of parent body, though, the sand-sized debris that makes up the Perseids meteors come from Comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet follows a well-defined orbit around our Sun, and the part of the orbit that approaches Earth is superposed in front of the Perseus. Therefore, when Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris appears in Perseus. Featured here, a composite image taken over eight nights and containing over 400 meteors from 2018 August's Perseids meteor shower shows many bright meteors that streaked over Kolonica Observatory in Slovakia.  This year's Perseids holds promise to be one of the best meteor showers of the year.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2008/NightOfThePerseids_Horalek_1800.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Perseids from Perseus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2008/NightOfThePerseids_Horalek_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Jes�s M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal",
		"date": "2017-02-08",
		"explanation": "The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust.  This sharp close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope and is presented here in reprocessed colors.  Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).   Follow APOD on: Facebook,  Google Plus,  Instagram, or Twitter",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1702/Butterfly_HubbleVargas_5075.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1702/Butterfly_HubbleVargas_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2003-06-22",
		"explanation": "In the center of star-forming region 30 Doradus lies a huge cluster of the largest, hottest, most massive stars known.  These stars and part of the surrounding nebula are captured here in this gorgeous visible-light Hubble Space Telescope image. Gas and dust clouds in 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula, have been sculpted into elongated shapes by powerful winds and ultraviolet radiation from these hot cluster stars. Insets in the picture represent corresponding views from the Hubble's infrared camera where each square measures 15.5 light-years across. Penetrating the obscuring dust, these infrared images themselves offer detailed pictures of star formation within the nebula's collapsing clouds, revealing the presence of newborn massive stars. The 30 Doradus Nebula lies within a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, located a mere 170,000 light-years away.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0306/30dor_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Massive Stars of 30 Doradus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0306/30dor_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "AAO",
		"date": "2001-07-22",
		"explanation": "The Orion Nebula is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy patch near the famous belt of three stars in the Orion.  The above picture captures a part of the Orion Nebula that primarily reflects light from bright Orion stars.  This reflection nebula appears blue because the blue light from the neighboring stars scatters more efficiently from nebula gas than does red light.  The dark lanes are composed of mostly interstellar dust - fine needle-shaped carbon grains.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0107/ngc1977_aat.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 1977: Blue Reflection Nebula in Orion",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0107/ngc1977_aat_big.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2002-10-11",
		"explanation": "One of the brightest stars on the sky likely has planets.  Fomalhaut, actually the 17th brightest star in the night sky, is a mere 22 light-years away but only a fraction of the age of our Sun.  Recent observations in far infrared light with a detector cooled to near zero kelvins indicate a dust disk surrounding Fomalhaut that has both a hole in the center and a warped edge.  Now the hole in the center indicates that dust has fallen onto interior planets -- possibly like the Earth -- while the warp at the edge indicates the gravitational pull of a planet like Jupiter or Saturn.  The discovery image was taken with the SCUBA instrument through the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, USA.  The above illustration shows what the Fomalhaut dusty planetary system might look like from near the large planet.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0210/fomalhaut_atc_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Fomalhaut Dust Disk Indicates Planets",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0210/fomalhaut_atc.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-01-31",
		"explanation": "Sixty years ago, on January 31, 1958, the First Explorer was successfully launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency on a Jupiter-C rocket.  Inaugurating the era of space exploration for the United States, Explorer I was a thirty pound satellite that carried instruments to measure temperatures, and micrometeorite impacts, along with an experiment designed by James A. Van Allen to measure the density of electrons and ions in space. The measurements made by Van Allen's experiment led to an unexpected and then startling discovery of two earth-encircling belts of high energy electrons and ions trapped in the magnetosphere. Now known as the Van Allen Radiation belts, the regions are located in the inner magnetosphere, beyond low Earth orbit. Explorer I ceased transmitting on February 28, 1958, but remained in orbit until March of 1970.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1801/explorer1_liftoff.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The First Explorer",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1801/explorer1_liftoff800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2002-05-02",
		"explanation": "In this stunning vista recorded with the Hubble Space Telescope's new advanced camera, distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted spiral galaxy Arp 188, the Tadpole Galaxy. The cosmic Tadpole is a mere 420 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation Draco. Its eye-catching tail is about 280 thousand light-years long and features massive, bright blue star clusters. One story goes that a more compact intruder galaxy crossed in front of Arp 188 - from left to right in this view - and was slung around behind the Tadpole by their gravitational attraction. During the close encounter, tidal forces drew out the spiral galaxy's stars, gas, and dust forming the spectacular tail. The intruder galaxy itself, estimated to lie about 300 thousand light-years behind the Tadpole, can be seen through foreground spiral arms at the upper left. Following its terrestrial namesake, the Tadpole Galaxy will likely lose its tail as it grows older, the tail's star clusters forming smaller satellites of the large spiral galaxy.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0205/tadpole_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tidal Tail",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0205/tadpole_hst_c1.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1995-08-04",
		"explanation": "August 4, 1995    Closeup of an Io Volcano  Credit: NASA, Voyager Project, Copyright Calvin J. Hamilton  Explanation:  In 1979, one of NASA's Voyager spacecraft made a spectacular and unexpected discovery. Io, the innermost Galilean moon of Jupiter, was covered with volcanoes and some of them were erupting! In all, Voyager 1 observed nine volcanic eruptions during its encounter with the moon. When Voyager 2 flew past four months later it was able to confirm that at least six of them were still erupting. This Voyager image of Ra Patera, a large shield volcano, shows colorful flows up to about 200 miles long emanating from the dark central volcanic vent. For more information about volcanism on Io, see Calvin J. Hamilton's Io page",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/iovol1.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Closeup of an Io Volcano",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/iovol1.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2001-03-11",
		"explanation": "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",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0103/ngc1818_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 1818: A Young Globular Cluster",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0103/ngc1818_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
    "date": "2017-10-22",
    "explanation": "What's happening at the center of active galaxy 3C 75?  The two bright sources at the center of this composite x-ray (blue)/ radio (pink) image are co-orbiting supermassive black holes powering the giant radio source 3C 75. Surrounded by multimillion degree x-ray emitting gas, and blasting out jets of relativistic particles the supermassive black holes are separated by 25,000 light-years. At the cores of two merging galaxies in the Abell 400 galaxy cluster they are some 300 million light-years away. Astronomers conclude that these two supermassive black holes are bound together by gravity in a binary system in part because the jets' consistent swept back appearance is most likely due to their common motion as they speed through the hot cluster gas at 1200 kilometers per second. Such spectacular cosmic mergers are thought to be common in crowded galaxy cluster environments in the distant universe. In their final stages the mergers are expected to be intense sources of gravitational waves.   Free Download: The 2018 APOD Calendar",
    "hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1710/3c75_chandraNRAO_576.jpg",
    "media_type": "image",
    "service_version": "v1",
    "title": "Two Black Holes Dancing in 3C 75",
    "url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1710/3c75_chandraNRAO_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Terry Hancock",
		"date": "2014-09-05",
		"explanation": "This rich starscape spans nearly 7 degrees on the sky, toward the Sagittarius spiral arm and the center of our Milky Way galaxy. A telescopic mosaic, it features well-known bright nebulae and star clusters cataloged by 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier. Still popular stops for skygazers M16, the Eagle (far right), and M17, the Swan (near center) nebulae are the brightest star-forming emission regions. With wingspans of 100 light-years or so, they shine with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen atoms from over 5,000 light-years away. Colorful open star cluster M25 near the upper left edge of the scene is closer, a mere 2,000 light-years distant and about 20 light-years across. M24, also known as the Sagittarius Star Cloud, crowds in just left of center along the bottom of the frame, fainter and more distant Milky Way stars seen through a narrow window in obscuring fields of interstellar dust.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1409/M16M17M18M24M25RGBHa_5panel_Hancock.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Sagittarius Starscape",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1409/M16M17M18M24M25RGBHa_5panel_Hancock1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2008-05-01",
		"explanation": "Globular star cluster Omega Centauri is some 15,000 light-years away and 150 light-years in diameter. Packed with about 10 million stars, Omega Cen is the largest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. This intriguing color picture combines a visible light image of the cluster in blue hues with infrared image data from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer data includes images in two infrared bands, one shown in green and one in red. Both infrared bands are sensitive to light from the cool, giant stars in the cluster. Adding the red and green colors together creates yellow, showing off the cluster's giant stars as yellow spots. Of course, red spots also indicate cool, giant stars in the image, but some of the red spots are even more distant background galaxies. Also known simply as Red Giant Stars, they represent a stage in the life-cycle of stars more evolved than our own Sun, a stage the Sun will reach in about 5 billion years. Dust grains formed in the atmospheres of cool, giant stars are ultimately involved in the formation of other stars and planets.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080501.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0805/OmegaCen_spitzer.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Giants of Omega Centauri",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0805/OmegaCen_spitzer_c800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2015-09-25",
		"explanation": "A mountainous region informally known as Tartarus Dorsa sprawls some 530 kilometers (330 miles) across this Plutonian landscape. Recently downloaded from New Horizons, it combines blue, red, and infrared image data in an extended color view captured near the spacecraft's close approach to Pluto on July 14. Shadows near the terminator, the line between Pluto's dim day and night, emphasize a rough, scaly texture. The stunning image resolves details on the distant world about 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) across. Refering to a part of Hades in ancient Greek mythology, Tartarus Dorsa borders Tombaugh Regio to the east.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1509/PlutoSnakeskin_NHdetail.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Pluto's Snakeskin Terrain",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1509/PlutoSnakeskin_NHdetail1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Andy Steere",
		"date": "1996-05-15",
		"explanation": "This beautiful image of the sky near the bright star Deneb (just above center) reveals the stars, nebulae, and dark clouds along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy as seen from the northern hemisphere (near Columbia Missouri, USA). Just below Deneb lies the suggestively shaped North America emission nebula. Deneb is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, located in the tail of this celestial swan. Cygnus contains the asterism known as the Northern Cross and marks one side of the \"Great Rift\" in the Milky Way, a series of dark obscuring dust clouds which stretches on through the constellation Sagittarius. Deneb defines the top of the Northern Cross while the body of the cross extends past the upper right corner of the picture. Cygnus also harbors the most famous candidate for a black hole in our galaxy, Cygnus X-1.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/northerncross_as_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Milky Way Near the Northern Cross",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/northerncross_as.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Tomas Slovinsky",
		"date": "2019-12-24",
		"explanation": "What stars shine in Earth's northern hemisphere during winter? The featured image highlights a number of bright stars visible earlier this month. The image is a 360-degree horizontal-composite panorama of 66 vertical frames taken consecutively with the same camera and from the same location at about 2:30 am. Famous stars visible in the picture include Castor & Pollux toward the southeast on the left, Sirius just over the horizon toward the south, Capella just over the arch of the Milky Way Galaxy toward the west, and Polaris toward the north on the right.  Captured by coincidence is a meteor on the far left.  In the foreground is the Museum of the Orava Village in Zuberec, Slovakia. This village recreates rural life in the region hundreds of years ago, while the image captures a timeless sky surely familar to village residents, a sky also shared with northern residents around the world.    Free Download: 2020 APOD Calendar",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1912/WinterStars_Slovinsky_2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Northern Winter Sky Panorama",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1912/WinterStars_Slovinsky_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1996-07-05",
		"explanation": "What's causing those odd rings in supernova 1987a?  In 1987, the brightest supernova in recent history occurred in the Large Magellanic Clouds. At the center of the picture is an object central to the remains of the violent stellar explosion. When the Hubble Space Telescope was pointed at the supernova remnant in 1994, however, curious rings were discovered. The origins of these rings still remains a mystery. Speculation into the cause of the rings includes  beamed jets emanating from a dense star left over from the supernova, and a superposition of two stellar winds ionized by the supernova explosion.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/SN1987a_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Mysterious Rings of Supernova 1987a",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/SN1987a_hst.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Ignacio Llorens",
		"date": "2016-02-06",
		"explanation": "February's five planet line-up stretches across a clear sky in this predawn scene. A hilltop Castell de Burriac looms in the foreground, overlooking the town of Cabrera de Mar near Barcelona, Spain, planet Earth. The mosaicked, panoramic image looks south. It merges three different exposure times to record a bright Last Quarter Moon, planets, seaside city lights, and dark castle ruins. Seen on February 1st the Moon was near Mars on the sky. But this week early morning risers have watched it move on, passing near Saturn and finally Venus and Mercury, sliding along near the ecliptic toward the dawn, approaching the February 7 New Moon.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1602/1feb2016CastellBurriacHDR_StitchedLabelsLlorens.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Five Planets at Castell de Burriac",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1602/1feb2016CastellBurriacHDR_StitchedLabelsLlorens1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Miloslav Druckm�llerBrno U. of Tech.",
		"date": "2017-08-13",
		"explanation": "Only in the fleeting darkness of a total solar eclipse is the light of the solar corona easily visible. Normally overwhelmed by the bright solar disk, the expansive corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, is an alluring sight. But the subtle details and extreme ranges in the corona's brightness, although discernible to the eye, are notoriously difficult to photograph. Pictured here, however, using multiple images and digital processing, is a detailed image of the Sun's corona taken during the 2008 August total solar eclipse from Mongolia.  Clearly visible are intricate layers and glowing caustics of an ever changing mixture of hot gas and magnetic fields. Bright looping prominences appear pink just above the Sun's limb. A similar solar corona might be visible through clear skies in a thin swath across the USA during a total solar eclipse that occurs just one week from tomorrow.    Citizen Science: How to participate during the Aug. 21 eclipse.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1708/corona_druckmuller_1600.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Detailed View of a Solar Eclipse Corona",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1708/corona_druckmuller_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Lorenzo Ranieri Tenti",
		"date": "2019-03-22",
		"explanation": "Despite the cold, a chance to view the shimmering northern lights coaxed this skygazer onto the frozen surface of Lake Superior on the west coast of the Keweenaw Peninsula and offered this nocturnal crescendo as a reward. A northern late winter night sky also plays across the panoramic composition of images made between 10pm and 1am on the night of February 28/March 1. At left, a faint band of Zodiacal light rises sharply from the horizon crossing Mars and the Pleides star cluster. Both the distant galaxy M31 and our own Milky Way shine above the greenish auroral arc. Navigational north pole star Polaris is centered above and accompanied on the right by the northern night's most recognizable asterism, the Big Dipper. Terrestrial lights include markers for two breakwaters on the the horizon near the center of the scene.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1903/HoughtonAurora_03_2019.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Symphony in Northern Winter Skies",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1903/HoughtonAurora_03_2019_600.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-03-06",
		"explanation": "Rocks from space hit Earth every day.  The larger the rock, though, the less often Earth is struck.  Many kilograms of space dust pitter to Earth daily. Larger bits appear initially as a bright meteor.  Baseball-sized rocks and ice-balls streak through our atmosphere daily, most evaporating quickly to nothing.  Significant threats do exist for rocks near 100 meters in diameter, which strike the Earth roughly every 1000 years.  An object this size could cause significant tsunamis were it to strike an ocean, potentially devastating even distant shores. A collision with a massive asteroid, over 1 km across, is more rare, occurring typically millions of years apart, but could have truly global consequences. Many asteroids remain undiscovered.  In fact, one was discovered in 1998 as the long blue streak in the above archival image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. In 2002 June, the small 100-meter asteroid 2002 MN was discovered only after it whizzed by the Earth, passing well within the orbit of the Moon. 2002 MN passed closer than any asteroid since 1994 XM1, but not as close as 2004 MN4 will pass in 2029. A collision with a large asteroid  would not affect Earth's orbit so much as raise dust that would affect Earth's climate.  One likely result is a global extinction of many species of life, possibly dwarfing the ongoing extinction occurring now.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1103/asteroidstreak_hst_350.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Asteroids in the Distance",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1103/asteroidstreak_hst_900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2012-08-18",
		"explanation": "What does the Curiosity rover look like on Mars? To help find out, NASA engineers digitally synthesized multiple navigation camera images taken last week into what appears to be the view of a single camera. Besides clods of Martian dirt, many of Curiosity's science instruments are visible and appear in good shape. Near the middle of the rover is an augmented reality tag intended to enable smartphones to provide background information.  Far in the distance is a wall of Gale Crater. As Curiosity will begin to roll soon, its first destination has now been chosen: an intriguing intersection of three types of terrain named Glenelg.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1208/curiosity_curiosity_5341.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Curiosity on Mars: Still Life with Rover",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1208/curiosity_curiosity_960.jpg"
	},
	{
	   "copyright": "Lynette Cook",
		"date": "1999-04-16",
		"explanation": "Yesterday, astronomers announced the discovery of the first system of planets around a normal star other than our Sun.  Previously, only single planet star systems had been found.  Subtle changes in the wobble of Upsilon Andromedae, a Sun-like star in the constellation of Andromeda, allowed astronomers led by R. Paul Butler (AAO) and Geoffrey W. Marcy (SFSU /UCB) to make the breakthrough.  This star system is quite different from our own Solar System, however.  All three detected planets have masses near or above Jupiter. The discovery implies that multiple-planet systems are quite common, increasing speculation that life-bearing planets similar to Earth may one day be found.  The drawing above is an artist's depiction of the Upsilon Andromedae system and its innermost planet.  This planet orbits unexpectedly close to its parent star.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9904/uAnd_cook.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Upsilon Andromedae: An Extra-Solar System",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9904/uAnd_cook.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-04-13",
		"explanation": "From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 3344 face-on. Nearly 40,000 light-years across, the big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo Minor. This multi-color Hubble Space Telescope close-up of NGC 3344 includes remarkable details from near infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths. The frame extends some 15,000 light-years across the spiral's central regions. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral arms. Of course, the bright stars with a spiky appearance are in front of NGC 3344 and lie well within our own Milky Way.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/NGC3344_hst2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Facing NGC 3344",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1804/NGC3344_hst1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Wally Pacholka",
		"date": "2013-06-01",
		"explanation": "Have you ever hiked the Queen's Garden trail in Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA, planet Earth? Walking along that path in this dark night skyscape, you can almost imagine your journey continues along the pale, luminous Milky Way. Of course, the name for our galaxy, the Milky Way (in Latin, Via Lactea), does refer to its appearance as a milky band or path in the sky. In fact, the word galaxy itself derives from the Greek for milk. Visible on moonless nights from dark sky areas, though not so bright or quite so colorful as in this image, the glowing celestial band is due to the collective light of myriad stars along the plane of our galaxy, too faint to be distinguished individually. The diffuse starlight is cut by dark swaths of obscuring galactic dust clouds. Four hundred years ago, Galileo turned his telescope on the Milky Way and announced it to be \"... a congeries of innumerable stars ...\"",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1306/BC-QueenTrail-Tree-950wp.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Milky Trail",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1306/BC-QueenTrail-Tree-950wp.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2018-06-23",
		"explanation": "Winds on Mars can't actually blow spacecraft over. But in the low gravity, martian winds can loft fine dust particles in planet-wide storms, like the dust storm now raging on the Red Planet. From the martian surface on sol 2082 (June 15), this self-portrait from the Curiosity rover shows the effects of the dust storm, reducing sunlight and visibility at the rover's location in Gale crater. Made with the Mars Hand Lens Imager, its mechanical arm is edited out of the mosaicked images. Curiosity's recent drill site Duluth can be seen on the rock just in front of the rover on the left. The east-northeast Gale crater rim fading into the background is about 30 kilometers away. Curiosity is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator and is expected to be unaffected by the increase in dust at Gale crater. On the other side of Mars, the solar-powered Opportunity rover has ceased its operations due to the even more severe lack of sunlight at its location on the west rim of Endeavour crater.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1806/PIA22486CuriositySelf2018dustStorm2048.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Curiosity's Dusty Self",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1806/PIA22486CuriositySelf2018dustStorm1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "John NelsonIDV Solutions",
		"date": "2012-09-04",
		"explanation": "Should you be worried about hurricanes?  To find out, it is useful to know where hurricanes have gone in the past. The above Earth map shows the path of every hurricane reported since 1851,  Although striking, a growing incompleteness exists in the data the further one looks back in time. The above map graphically indicates that hurricanes -- sometimes called cyclones or typhoons depending on where they form -- usually occur over water, which makes sense since evaporating warm water gives them energy. The map also shows that hurricanes never cross -- or even occur very near -- the Earth's equator, since the Coriolis effect goes to zero there, and hurricanes need the Coriolis force to circulate. The Coriolis force also causes hurricane paths to arc away from the equator. Although incompleteness fogs long term trends and the prevalence of hurricanes remains a topic of research, evidence is accumulating that hurricanes are, on the average, more common and more powerful in the North Atlantic Ocean over the past 20 years.   Astronomy Teachers Wanted: Join NASA's NITARP",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1209/hurricanes_nelson_1274.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Hurricane Paths on Planet Earth",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1209/hurricanes_nelson_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Catching the Light",
		"date": "2016-11-18",
		"explanation": "A supermoon sets over the metropolis of Philadelphia in this twilight snapshot captured on November 14 at 6:21am Eastern Standard Time. Within hours of the Moon's exact full phase, that time does correspond to a lunar perigee or the closest point in the Moon's elliptical orbit around our fair planet. Slightly bigger and brighter at perigee, this Full Moon is still flattened and distorted in appearance by refraction in atmospheric layers along the sight-line near the horizon. Also like more ordinary Full Moons, it shines with the warm color of sunlight. Joined by buildings along the Philadelphia skyline, the perigee full moonlight is reflected in the waters of the mighty Cooper River.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1611/Supermoon_20161114lodriguss.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Philadelphia Perigee Full Moon",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1611/Supermoon_20161114_1024lodriguss.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Tom MastersonTransient Astronomer",
		"date": "2018-02-12",
		"explanation": "What's that heading for the Pleiades star cluster? It appears to be Comet C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS), but here, appearances are deceiving.  On the right and far in the background, the famous Pleiades star cluster is dominated by blue light from massive young stars.  On the left and visiting the inner Solar System is Comet PanSTARRS, a tumbling block of ice from the outer Solar System that currently sports a long ion tail dominated by blue light from an unusually high abundance of ionized carbon monoxide.  Comet PanSTARRS is actually moving toward the top of the image, and its ion tail points away from the Sun but is affected by a complex  solar wind of particles streaming out from the Sun.  Visible through a small telescope, the comet is fading as it recedes from the Earth, even though it reaches its closest point to the Sun in early May.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1802/BlueCometPleiades_Masterson_5407.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Blue Comet Meets Blue Stars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1802/BlueCometPleiades_Masterson_1080.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2012-06-24",
		"explanation": "In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon in the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. This sharp image was taken by Cernan as he and Schmitt roamed the valley floor. The image shows Schmitt on the left with the lunar rover at the edge of Shorty Crater, near the spot where geologist Schmitt discovered orange lunar soil. The Apollo 17 crew returned with 110 kilograms of rock and soil samples, more than was returned from any of the other lunar landing sites. Now forty years later, Cernan and Schmitt are still the last to walk on the Moon.   Follow APOD: on Facebook or G+  Follow APOD Bonus Images: on Facebook or G+",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1206/moonshorty_apollo17_1498.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Apollo 17 at Shorty Crater",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1206/moonshorty_apollo17_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-10-03",
		"explanation": "Comet Halley was photographed superposed in front of the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy in 1986 by the Kuiper Airborne Observatory.  Comet Halley is the bright white streak near this photograph's center.  Comet Halley is the most famous comet in history, and returns to the inner Solar System every 76 years.  Stars visible in our Milky Way Galaxy typically lie millions of times farther in the distance and orbit the Galactic center every 250 million years.  Billions of comets are thought to orbit our Sun but most do not get close enough for us to see.  Similarly, billions of stars orbit our Milky Way's center but do not get close enough for us to see.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9710/halleymw_kao_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Comet Halley and the Milky Way",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9710/halleymw_kao.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Donald Mitchell",
		"date": "2021-03-17",
		"explanation": "If you could stand on Venus -- what would you see?  Pictured is the view from Venera 14, a robotic Soviet lander which parachuted and air-braked down through the thick Venusian atmosphere in March of 1982. The desolate landscape it saw included flat rocks, vast empty terrain, and a featureless sky above Phoebe Regio near Venus' equator. On the lower left is the spacecraft's penetrometer used to make scientific measurements, while the light piece on the right is part of an ejected lens-cap.  Enduring temperatures near 450 degrees Celsius and pressures 75 times that on Earth, the hardened Venera spacecraft lasted only about an hour. Although data from Venera 14 was beamed across the inner Solar System almost 40 years ago, digital processing and merging of Venera's unusual images continues even today.  Recent analyses of infrared measurements taken by ESA's orbiting Venus Express spacecraft indicate that active volcanoes may currently exist on Venus.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/Venus_Venera14_1705.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Surface of Venus from Venera 14",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/Venus_Venera14_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Adam Block",
		"date": "2017-05-12",
		"explanation": "In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, \"This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent.\" Of course, M13 is now less modestly recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. Telescopic views reveal the spectacular cluster's hundreds of thousands of stars. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter. Approaching the cluster core upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3 light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away. Along with the cluster's dense core, the outer reaches of M13 are highlighted in this sharp color image. The cluster's evolved red and blue giant stars show up in yellowish and blue tints.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1705/m13Block.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1705/m13s_3Block.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2020-03-17",
		"explanation": "What's happening in the center of nearby spiral galaxy M77? The face-on galaxy lies a mere 47 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Sea Monster (Cetus).  At that estimated distance, this gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across.  Also known as NGC 1068, its compact and very bright core is well studied by astronomers exploring the mysteries of supermassive black holes in active Seyfert galaxies.  M77 and its active core glows bright at x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and radio wavelengths.  The featured sharp image of M77 was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and is dominated by the (visible) red light emitted by hydrogen.  The image shows details of the spiral's winding spiral arms as traced by obscuring dust clouds, and red-tinted star forming regions close in to the galaxy's luminous core.    Astrophysicists: Browse 2,100+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/M77Halpha_HubbleSchmidt_2290.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "M77: Spiral Galaxy with an Active Center",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/M77Halpha_HubbleSchmidt_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-08-09",
		"explanation": "Hot gas frequently erupts from the Sun.  One such eruption produced the glowing filament pictured above, which was captured on July 19 by the Earth-orbiting TRACE satellite.  The filament, although small compared to the overall size of the Sun, measures over 100,000 kilometers in height, so that the entire Earth could easily fit into its outstretched arms.  Gas in the filament is funneled by the complex and changing magnetic field of the Sun.  After lifting off from the Sun's surface, most of the filamentary gas will eventually fall back.  More powerful solar eruptions emit particles that reach the Earth and can disrupt manmade satellites.  The cause and nature of solar eruptions are the topic of much research.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0008/filament_trace_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Solar Filament Lifts Off",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0008/filament_trace.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Isaac Guti�rrez Pascual",
		"date": "2010-09-15",
		"explanation": "Sometimes the sky above can become quite a show. Last week, for example, the Moon and Venus converged, creating quite a sight by itself for sky enthusiasts around the globe.  From some locations, though, the sky was even more picturesque. In the above image taken last week from Spain, a crescent Moon and the planet Venus, on the far right, were captured during sunset posing against a deep blue sky.  In the foreground, dark storm clouds loom across the image bottom, while a white anvil cloud shape appears above. Black specks dot the frame, caused by a flock of birds taking flight. Very soon after this picture was taken, however, the birds passed by, the storm ended, and Venus and the Moon set.  The Moon and Venus have now separated, although Venus will remain visible at sunset for the rest of this month.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1009/venusmoon_pascual_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus \n",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1009/venusmoon_pascual.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2005-01-26",
		"explanation": "The new Delta IV Heavy Launch Vehicle is the largest rocket ever to be launched by the US Air Force.  The Delta IV Heavy is capable of launching over 23,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit.  The first launch of the Delta IV Heavy occurred last month and was largely successful with the exception that the boosters shut off several seconds prematurely.  Boeing's Delta IV Heavy is the largest of the Delta IV series, packing the punch of three rocket boosters instead of one.  Pictured above, the Delta IV Heavy is seen lifting off by a RocketCam perched on its side.  The time-lapse sequence shows the launch, one of the rocket boosters being jettisoned, and a test satellite further lifting away. Lockheed Martin is developing its own heavy lifting version of its Altas rocket series in conjunction with the US Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) progam.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/delta4heavy_ecliptic_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "First Launch of the Delta IV Heavy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0501/delta4heavy_ecliptic.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert Gendler",
		"date": "2008-05-08",
		"explanation": "In silhouette against a crowded star field toward the constellation Scorpius, this dusty cosmic cloud evokes for some the image of an ominous dark tower. In fact, clumps of dust and molecular gas collapsing to form stars may well lurk within the dark nebula, a structure that spans almost 40 light-years across the gorgeous telescopic view. Known as a cometary globule, the swept-back cloud, extending from the upper right to the head (top of the tower) left and below center, is shaped by intense ultraviolet radiation from the OB association of very hot stars in NGC 6231, off the left edge of the scene. That energetic ultraviolet light also powers the globule's bordering reddish glow of hydrogen gas. Hot stars embedded in the dust can be seen as small bluish reflection nebulae. This dark tower, NGC 6231, and associated nebulae are about 5,000 light-years away.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080508.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0805/DarktowerL_gendler.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Dark Tower in Scorpius",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0805/DarktowerS_gendler800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "FOCASSubaru 8.2-m TelescopeNAOJ",
		"date": "2003-11-23",
		"explanation": "What's lighting up the Cigar Galaxy?  M82, as this irregular galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large  spiral galaxy M81.  This doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas, however.  Recent evidence indicates that this gas is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic \"superwind.\"  The above recently released photograph from the new Subaru Telescope highlights the specific color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing detailed filaments of this gas.  The filaments extend for over 10,000 light years.  The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light, and can be seen in visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of Ursa Major.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0311/m82_subaru_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Superwind from the Cigar Galaxy",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0311/m82_subaru.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1995-08-12",
		"explanation": "August 12, 1995    Atlantis Landing  Credit: NASA, Kennedy Space Center Explanation:  Space Shuttle Atlantis  lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The Space Shuttle is the first orbital space vehicle to land on a runway like an airplane.  Space Shuttles sometimes have the option of landing in White Sands, New Mexico or at the  Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The runways the shuttles land on are among the longest in the world. Shuttles that do not land in Florida must generally be strapped to the back of a 747 airplane and flown back.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/atlantis_land.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Atlantis Landing",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/atlantis_land.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Tolga TopalhanSerkan Saygan(Space Camp,\nTurkey)\n\n",
		"date": "2001-04-28",
		"explanation": "Tomorrow's picture: Ice Fishing  < | Archive | Index | Search | Calendar | Glossary | Education | About APOD | >  Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA) NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply. A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0104/moon_sct_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Moon and All the Crashes",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0104/moon_sct.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "M. Colleen Gino",
		"date": "2007-08-21",
		"explanation": "Why would the dome of a telescopic observatory appear translucent red?  As one of the telescopes of the Etscorn Observatory of New Mexico Tech waited to inspect small portions of the night sky, playful observers decided to make this unusual image.  Tricks needed to create this seemingly impossible shot included opening the observatory dome slightly, using a red light to illuminate the inside of the dome, spinning the dome, and using a long exposure.  The open slit in the dome then allowed the camera to incrementally image the inside of the observatory, including the telescope.  A fortuitous break in the clouds allowed the stars of the Big Dipper asterism to shine through.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0708/domesky_gino_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Red Dome Under the Big Dipper",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0708/domesky_gino.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "PixHeaven.net",
		"date": "2007-12-21",
		"explanation": "Scroll right and journey from horizon to horizon as your gaze sweeps through the zenith in the night sky over Beg-Meil, France. Recorded on December 13th, the entertaining panorama (image key) covers 210 degrees in 21 separate exposures, beginning on the beach with bright star Sirius rising in the southeast. Look up (pan right) to encounter the nebula rich constellation of Orion and continue on to find the lovely Pleiades star cluster. Farther along, higher in the sky, is the famous Comet Holmes, still gracing the northern hemisphere's night with its remarkable expanding coma. Finally, just before diving into the urban glow from city lights along the northwestern horizon (far right), check out the double star cluster in Perseus and take in the cosmic streak of a bright Geminid Meteor.   APOD presents: Astronomy Pictures of the Year for 2007",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/071213_1699-724_laveder800px.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Horizon to Horizon",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/071213_1699-724_laveder500px.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Raul Villaverde Fraile",
		"date": "2015-12-29",
		"explanation": "What surrounds a hotbed of star formation?  In the case of the Orion Nebula -- dust.  The entire Orion field, located about 1600 light years away, is inundated with intricate and picturesque filaments of dust. Opaque to visible light, dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by a strong outer wind of particles. The Trapezium and other forming star clusters are embedded in the nebula. The intricate filaments of dust surrounding M42 and M43 appear brown in the featured image, while central glowing gas is highlighted in red. Over the next few million years much of Orion's dust will be slowly destroyed by the very stars now being formed, or dispersed into the Galaxy.   Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1512/OrionDust_Fraile_1037.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Dust of the Orion Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1512/OrionDust_Fraile_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2019-10-29",
		"explanation": "Why is there clay on Mars? On Earth, clay can form at the bottom of a peaceful lake when specific minerals trap water.  At the pictured site on Mars, the robotic rover Curiosity drilled into two rocks and found the highest concentration of clay yet.  The clay cache is considered addition evidence that Gale Crater once held water in the distant past.  Pictured, 57 images taken by Curiosity have been combined into a selfie. The images were taken by a camera at the end of its robotic arm. Many details of the car-sized rover are visible, including its rugged wheels, numerous scientific instruments, and a high mast that contains camera \"eyes\", one of which can shoot out an infrared laser beam.  Curiosity continues to roll around and up Mount Sharp -- in the center of Gale Crater -- in a search for new clues about the ancient history of Mars and whether or not the red planet once had conditions that could support life.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1910/ClayCache_Curiosity_9990.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Curiosity Rover Finds a Clay Cache on Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1910/ClayCache_Curiosity_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Dieter Willasch",
		"date": "2013-01-03",
		"explanation": "Open clusters of stars can be near or far, young or old, and diffuse or compact.  Found near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, they contain from 100 to 10,000 stars, all of which formed at nearly the same time.  Bright blue stars frequently distinguish younger open clusters.  M35, on the upper left, is relatively nearby at 2800 light years distant, relatively young at 150 million years old, and relatively diffuse, with about 2500 stars spread out over a volume 30 light years across.  An older and more compact open cluster, NGC 2158, is at the lower right.  NGC 2158 is four times more distant than M35, over 10 times older, and much more compact with many more stars in roughly the same volume of space.  NGC 2158's bright blue stars have self-destructed, leaving cluster light to be dominated by older and yellower stars.  Both clusters are seen toward the constellation of Gemini.   APOD Editors to Speak",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1301/M35-DW.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1301/M35-DW900.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Robert Barsa",
		"date": "2021-03-05",
		"explanation": "The surface of this planet looks a little like Mars. It's really planet Earth though. In a digitally stitched little planet projection, the 360 degree mosaic was captured near San Pedro in the Chilean Atacama desert. Telescopes in domes on the horizon are taking advantage of the arid region's famously dark, clear nights. Taken in early December, a magnificent Milky Way arcs above the horizon for almost 180 degrees around the little planet with Orion prominent in the southern sky. A familiar constellation upside down for northern hemisphere skygazers, Orion shares that southern December night almost opposite the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. But the Red Planet itself is the brightest yellowish celestial beacon in this little planet sky.   Please take a short survey in aesthetics & astronomy: Sonification",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/Barsa-LikealittleMars.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Little Like Mars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/Barsa-LikealittleMars1024.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "AAO",
		"date": "2002-02-11",
		"explanation": "An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of dark dust highlight M78, one of the brightest  reflection nebula on the sky. M78 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of Orion.  The dust not only absorbs light, but also reflects the light of several bright blue stars that formed recently in the nebula.  The same type of scattering that colors the daytime sky further enhances the blue color.  M78 is about five light-years across. M78 appears above only as it was 1600 years ago, however, because that is how long it takes light to go from there to here.  M78 belongs to the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex that contains the Great Nebula in Orion and the Horsehead Nebula.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0202/m78_aao_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Reflection Nebula M78",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0202/m78_aao.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2006-06-27",
		"explanation": "The moons of Saturn never stop.   A space traveler orbiting the ringed giant planet would witness a continuing silent dance where Saturn's multiple moons pass near each other in numerous combinations.   Like a miniature Solar System, the innermost moons orbit Saturn the fastest.   The above movie was centered on Saturn's moon Rhea, so that the moons Mimas and Enceladus appear to glide by.  At 1,500 kilometers across, Rhea is over three times larger than the comparably sized Mimas and Enceladus.  The Sun illuminates the scene from the lower right, giving all of the moons the same crescent phase.  The above time lapse movie was created by the Saturn-orbiting robotic Cassini spacecraft over a period of about 40 minutes.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0606/movingmoons_cassini_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Moving Moons of Saturn",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0606/movingmoons_cassini.gif"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "B. Wallis and R. \nProvin",
		"date": "1996-08-11",
		"explanation": "What slithers there? The dark curly lanes visible in part of the constellation Ophiuchus belong to the Snake Nebula. The Snake Nebula is a series of dark absorption clouds.  Interstellar dust grains - composed predominantly of carbon - absorb visible starlight and reradiate much of it in the infrared. Infrared is a band of light so red humans can't see it.  This absorption causes stars in the background to be blocked from our view - and hence the appearance of noticeable voids on the sky.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/snake_wp_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Snake Nebula in Ophiuchus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/snake_wp.gif"
	},
	{
		"date": "2008-01-22",
		"explanation": "Perhaps it's time to go inside.  Such thoughts might occur to people witnessing the approach of an impressive shelf cloud.  Shelf clouds are typically seen leading thunderstorms, although they may precede any well defined front of relatively cold air.  Shelf clouds differ from roll clouds because shelf clouds are attached to a larger cloud system lurking above.  Similarly, shelf clouds differ from wall clouds because wall clouds typically trail storm systems.  The above pictured shelf cloud was photographed toward the southwest during a trip crossing the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada on the Trans-Canada Highway in 2001 August.  A rising Sun illuminated the impressive cloud from the east as it advanced from the west.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0801/shelfcloud_kerr_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Shelf Cloud Over Saskatchewan",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0801/shelfcloud_kerr.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-09-12",
		"explanation": "If you could have hovered above the Pathfinder mission to Mars in 1997, this is what you might have seen.  Directly below you is the control tower of Sagan Memorial Station.  Three dark solar arrays extend out to collect valuable energy, surrounded by light-colored deflated airbags that protected Pathfinder's instruments from directly colliding with the rocky Martian surface.  The left solar panel has ramps down which Pathfinder's rolling robot Sojourner started its adventure to nearby rocks.  Sojourner itself is visible inspecting a rock nicknamed Yogi at 11 o'clock.   Rocks cover the Martian surface, with Twin Peaks visible on the horizon at 9 0'clock.  The distant sky is mostly orange.  This image is a recently released digital combination of panoramic pictures taken by Pathfinder on Mars and a picture of a Lander scale model back on Earth.  The Mars Pathfinder Mission was able to collect data for three months, sending back information that has indicated a wet distant past for Mars.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0009/marsdonut_mpf_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Slightly Above Mars Pathfinder",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0009/marsdonut_mpf.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-07-03",
		"explanation": "Mars Pathfinder is nearing the end of its 7 month journey. The robot spacecraft is scheduled to use parachutes, rockets, and airbags to \"bouncedown\" on the red planet tomorrow - July 4th. This Hubble Space Telescope image of Mars was taken a few days ago to check on the weather. The pathfinder landing site, on the ancient floodplain Ares Vallis, is just right of center - 500 miles southeast of where Viking 1 landed in 1976. Along with the martian north polar cap, some water ice clouds are visible in both the northern and southern hemisphere. About 600 miles south of the landing site a dust storm can be seen as a brownish ribbon stretching through the the Valles Marineris, a continent sized canyon system. Fortunately, the dust storm is not expected to seriously affect operations at the landing site.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9707/pathland_hst_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Mars: A Journey's End",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9707/pathland2_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Jeff Dai",
		"date": "2013-12-13",
		"explanation": "The annual Geminid meteor shower is raining down on planet Earth this week. Despite the waxing gibbous moonlight, the reliable Geminids should be enjoyable tonight (night of December 13/14) near the shower's peak. Recorded near last year's peak in the early hours of December 14, 2012, this skyscape captures many of Gemini's lovely shooting stars. The careful composite of exposures was made during a three hour period overlooking the Dashanbao Wetlands in central China. Dark skies above are shared with bright Jupiter (right), Orion, (right of center) and the faint band of the Milky Way. The shower's radiant in the constellation Gemini, the apparent source of all the meteor streaks, lies just above the top of the frame. Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid 3200 Phaethon, Gemini's meteors enter the atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.  Watch Tonight: The Geminid Meteor Shower",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1312/GeminidMeteorShower2012_JeffDai.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Geminid Meteor Shower over Dashanbao Wetlands",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1312/GeminidMeteorShower2012_JeffDai950.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2016-06-04",
		"explanation": "Fifty years ago, Surveyor 1 reached the Moon. Launched on May 30, 1966 and landed on June 2, 1966 with the Moon at full phase it became the first US spacecraft to make a soft landing on another world. The first of seven Surveyor missions intended to test the lunar terrain for the planned Apollo landings it sent back over 10,000 images before lunar nightfall on June 14. The total rose to over 11,000 images returned before its second lunar night began on July 13. Surveyor 1 continued to respond from the lunar surface until January 7, 1967.  Captured in this 2009 image from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the first Surveyor still stands at its landing site, a speck in the Oceanus Procellarum (the Ocean of Storms). With the Sun low on the western horizon the lonely, 3.3 meter tall spacecraft casts a shadow almost 15 meters long in the late lunar afternoon.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/surv1_lro_thumb.png",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Shadow of Surveyor 1",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1606/surv1_lro_thumbcrop.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Melissa Christine Kendall",
		"date": "2016-07-12",
		"explanation": "Wait for me! In 2011, NASA's robotic mission Juno launched for Jupiter from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. Last week, Juno reached Jupiter and fired internal rockets to become only the second spacecraft to orbit our Solar System's largest planet. Juno, tasked with studying the jovian giant over the next two years, is in a highly elliptical orbit that will next bringing it near Jupiter's cloud tops in late August. Of course, the three-year-old pictured was not able to catch up to the launching rocket. Today, however, five years later, he is eight-years-old and still chasing rockets -- in that now he wants to be an astronaut.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1607/ChasingJuno_Kendall_1600.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Chasing Juno",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1607/ChasingJuno_Kendall_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2017-10-05",
		"explanation": "Imaged during the New Horizons spacecraft flyby in July 2015, Pluto's bladed terrain is captured in this close-up of the distant world. The bizarre texture belongs to fields of skyscraper-sized, jagged landforms made almost entirely of methane ice, found at extreme altitudes near Pluto's equator. Casting dramatic shadows, the tall, knife-like ridges seem to have been formed by sublimation. By that process, condensed methane ice turns directly to methane gas without passing through a liquid phase during Pluto's warmer geological periods. On planet Earth, sublimation can also produce standing fields of knife-like ice sheets, found along the high plateau of the Andes mountain range. Known as penitentes, those bladed structures are made of water ice and at most a few meters tall.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1710/pluto_02NH.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Pluto's Bladed Terrain",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1710/pluto_02NH600.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Peter Heinzen",
		"date": "2007-06-20",
		"explanation": "Something was about to happen.  Just two days ago, two of the three celestial objects easily visible during the day appeared to collide.  But actually, Earth's Moon passed well in front of the distant planet Venus.  The occultation was caught from Switzerland in the hours before sunset. Moments after this image was taken, the Moon, visible as the crescent on the right of the above image, eclipsed Venus, appearing near half phase on the lower left.   Clouds that once threatened to obscure the whole event, were visible on the far left.  About 90 minutes later, Venus re-appeared just to the right of the bright crescent.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0706/venuseclipse_heinzen_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "A Daylight Eclipse of Venus",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0706/venuseclipse_heinzen.jpg"
  
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Blake SuddethHaikuSusan Ode",
		"date": "2002-11-22",
		"explanation": "Full of itself moon - EVERYONE SHOULD LOOK AT ME. What's 33 years?  And for those who need a story ... photographer Blake Suddeth took over a hundred digital pictures early Tuesday morning in order to capture this single, gorgeous 10 second exposure of a \"Leonid of the Lake\" meteor flashing by a very full of itself moon. The dreamlike foreground lake and fog are courtesy of Greenwood, South Carolina, USA.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0211/LeonidOfTheLake_suddeth_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Full Moon, Lake, and Leonids Indeed",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0211/LeonidOfTheLake_suddeth.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Tunç Tezel",
		"date": "2013-07-19",
		"explanation": "Take a picture of Saturn in the sky tonight. You could capture a view like this one. Recorded just last month looking toward the south, planet Earth and ruins of the ancient temple of Athena at Assos, Turkey are in the foreground. The Moon rises at the far left of the frame and Saturn is the bright \"star\" at the upper right, near Virgo's alpha star Spica (picture with labels). If you do take a picture of Saturn or wave at Saturn and take a picture, you can share it online and submit it to the Saturn Mosaic Project. Why take a picture tonight? Because the Cassini spacecraft will be orbiting Saturn and taking a picture of you.  Interplanetary News: Photo Op from Cassini and MESSENGER - just be sure to smile and wave.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1307/Assos2013AthenaMoonSaturn_tezel.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Take a Picture of Saturn",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1307/Assos2013AthenaMoonSaturn_tezel600.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Stromboli online",
		"date": "2003-03-31",
		"explanation": "Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of years.  Located in Sicily, Italy, the volcano produces lava fountains over one kilometer high.  Mt. Etna is not only one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, it is one of the largest, measuring over 50 kilometers at its base and rising nearly 3 kilometers high.  Pictured in 2001 May, the tops of two lava plumes are visible near the center of the frame, while hot lava flowing down the volcano is visible on the left.   This panoramic shot also includes the city lights of Calabria and Taormina on the left, and Catania on the right.  The Earth's rotation is discernable on this long duration image as star trails.  Orange Mars can be seen rising just below the star Antares far in the distance.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0303/etna_fulle_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Mt. Etna Lava Plumes",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0303/etna_fulle.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "PixHeaven.net",
		"date": "2008-04-11",
		"explanation": "At first, he couldn't see it, but searching with binoculars along a cloudy western horizon near sunset, photographer Laurent Laveder finally spotted a delicate lunar crescent. Captured in this dramatic picture on April 6th from Bretagne, France, the Moon was only 15 hours and 38 minutes old. Its slight, irregular, sunlit arc opens upward just above the dark cloud bank near picture center. Of course, a crescent Moon in the early evening sky is a lovely sight often enjoyed by many. But finding the Moon when its slim crescent is still less than about 24 hours past the New Moon phase requires careful timing and planning, a challenging project even for experienced observers. In this sighting, only about 0.8 percent of the Moon's disk appears illuminated. Laveder notes that this is the youngest Moon he has spotted in twenty years of skygazing and also offers this animation (Flash or gif) based on his images of the tantalizing celestial scene.   digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080411.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0804/moon15h_laveder.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "At first, he couldn't see the Moon",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0804/moon15h_laveder800.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Dietmar\nHager",
		"date": "2016-11-03",
		"explanation": "Shiny NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, and also one of the dustiest.  Some call it the Silver Dollar Galaxy for its appearance in small telescopes, or just the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within the boundaries of the southern constellation Sculptor.  First swept up in 1783 by mathematician and astronomer Caroline Herschel, the dusty island universe lies a mere 10 million light-years away. About 70 thousand light-years across, NGC 253 is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest to our own Local Group of Galaxies.  In addition to its spiral dust lanes, tendrils of dust seem to be rising from a galactic disk laced with young star clusters and star forming regions in this sharp color image. The high dust content accompanies frantic star formation, earning NGC 253 the designation of a starburst galaxy. NGC 253 is also known to be a strong source of high-energy x-rays and gamma rays, likely due to massive black holes near the galaxy's center.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1611/NGC253hager.JPG",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1611/NGC253hagerC1024.JPG"
	},
	{
		"date": "1999-02-08",
		"explanation": "Winds of fast particles blow out from the Sun, but why?  Astronomers came a step closer to answering this question recently by making detailed observations of the high-speed wind source with the space-borne Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).  Images like those shown above isolate regions of inflowing gas, shown in red, and outflowing gas, shown in blue.  Particles such as electrons and protons flow out at speeds near 3 million kilometers per hour.  This wind will typically enter one of the Sun's coronal holes before flowing out into the Solar System.  Analysis indicates that the high-speed wind escapes at the edges of large convection cells, drawn in black.  SOHO has recently been revived to run without the use of any orienting gyroscopes.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9902/solwind_soho_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "The Solar Wind Emerges",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9902/solwind_soho.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Carlos Eduardo Fairbairn Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt",
		"date": "2016-05-10",
		"explanation": "Planets, stars, nebulas and a galaxy -- this impressive image has them all. Closest to home are the two planets Mars (right) and Saturn (center), visible as the two bright orange spots in the upper half of the featured image. On the central right are the colorful Rho Ophiuchus star clouds featuring the bright orange star Antares lined up below Mars.  These interstellar clouds contain both red emission nebulas and blue reflection nebulas.  At the top right of the image is the Blue Horsehead reflection nebula. On the lower left are many dark absorption nebulas that extend from the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. The featured deep composite was composed of multiple deep exposures taken last month from Brazil.  Although you need a telescope to see the nebulosities, Saturn and Mars will remain visible to the unaided eye this month toward the east, just after sunset.    Follow APOD on: Facebook,  Google Plus,  Instagram, or Twitter",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1605/OphiuchusPlanets_Fairbairn_1824.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Saturn and Mars visit Milky Way Star Clouds",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1605/OphiuchusPlanets_Fairbairn_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2000-09-18",
		"explanation": "Last Monday the crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis took in this view as they approached the developing International Space Station (ISS).   From top to bottom, the astronauts saw a station currently consisting of the Progress supply module, the Zvezda service module, the Zarya cargo module, and the Unity connecting module.  Never before had astronauts seen the station since the remote-controlled additions of Progress and Zvezda.  Energy collecting flat solar panels can be seen extending from some of the modules.  Soon after this picture was taken, Atlantis docked with the ISS at the Unity end.  The astronauts have worked hard unloading supplies, installing and testing equipment, and even planning to reboost the floating space station to a higher orbit.  The Shuttle and its entire crew are scheduled to return to Earth Wednesday.   The Space Shuttle Discovery is then scheduled to visit the ISS in two weeks.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0009/iss_sts106_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Approaching the International Space Station",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0009/iss_sts106.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "NicholasBuer",
		"date": "2019-01-27",
		"explanation": "There is a road that connects the Northern to the Southern Cross but you have to be at the right place and time to see it. The road, as pictured here, is actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy; the right place, in this case, is dark Laguna Cejar in Salar de Atacama of Northern Chile; and the right time was in early October, just after sunset. Many sky wonders were captured then, including the bright Moon, inside the Milky Way arch;  Venus, just above the Moon; Saturn and Mercury, just below the Moon; the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds satellite galaxies, on the far left; red airglow near the horizon on the image left; and the lights of small towns at several locations across the horizon.  One might guess that composing this 30-image panorama would have been a serene experience, but for that one would have required earplugs to ignore the continued brays of wild donkeys.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1901/chilepan_buer_1400.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "From the Northern to the Southern Cross",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1901/chilepan_buer_1400.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Shane LarsonAdler PlanetariumCIERA-Northwestern",
		"date": "2016-12-22",
		"explanation": "Looking out the window of an airplane, you might be lucky enough to see \"the glory\" in the direction directly opposite the Sun.  Before airplanes, the phenomenon, known to some as the heiligenschein or the Specter of the Brocken, was sometimes seen from mountaintops.  There, when conditions were right, one could look away from the Sun and see what appeared to be the shadow of a giant surrounded by a bright halo.  The giant turns out to be the observer, as in the modern version a silhouette of an airplane frequently occupies the glory's center.  This bright  glory was photographed two weeks ago over Michigan from an airplane on approach to O'Hare International Airport.  The cause of the glory is still being researched  and is relatively complex.  Surely, small droplets of water in some way reflect, refract, and diffract sunlight backwards towards the Sun.  The phenomenon has similar counterparts in other branches of science including astronomy, where looking out from the Earth  in the direction opposite the Sun yields a bright spot called the gegenschein.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1612/PlaneGlory_Larson_1584.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "An Airplane Glory",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1612/PlaneGlory_Larson_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-07-09",
		"explanation": "These mosaicked images form a color panorama of the region immediately surrounding the Sagan Memorial Station on Mars. The most recent images were recorded on Sol 4 - the 4th day of operations on the martian surface. The composite view reveals the reddish soil and rock-strewn terrain of an ancient martian flood channel. At top panel left the unused forward rover deployment ramp is seen extending from the bottom of the frame while farther to the right the Sojourner rover is visible. The large dark looking rock at the top of the panel near the right-hand side is called \"Yogi\". The now famous martian rock, Barnacle Bill, is seen just to the left of the rover itself. Sojourner's analysis shows that Barnacle Bill is unexpectedly similar to common quartz containing volcanic rocks on Earth! In the bottom panel yellowish material from some of the airbags that were used during landing can be seen along with regions of the martian soil that have been disturbed by the retraction of the deflated airbags.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9707/mars6_pathfinder_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Sol 4: Mars Color Panorama",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9707/mars6a_pathfinder.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2007-01-02",
		"explanation": "What were the first stars like? No one is yet sure.  Our Sun is not a first-generation star.  It is not even second generation.  The first stars to appear in the universe likely came and went about 13 billion years ago. However, deep observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light have detected a diffuse glow, possibly from first generation stars hundreds of times more massive than our Sun.  The above image shows infrared background light with bright patches that might have originated from clusters of these first objects.   Gray areas depict places where nearby foreground stars from our Milky Way Galaxy were digitally removed.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0701/firstllight_spitzer_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Light from the First Stars",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0701/firstllight_spitzer.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2001-08-23",
		"explanation": "This stunning color deep sky view toward the constellation Pisces was made with data from a fast, sensitive, digital detector known as the Big Throughput Camera operating at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Hardly noticeable in the original picture is the small cluster of about 15 galaxies nearly 3 billion light-years distant, circled at the lower right. In fact, this distant cluster was not discovered by noticing its appearance in the image at all, but instead by mapping the subtle distortions created by its gravity. As predicted by Einstein's General Relativity theory, the cluster's gravitational mass acts like a lens, bending light and distorting the shape of background galaxies. The effect is known as gravitational lensing. Computer mapping of weak distortions of background galaxy shapes across the Big Throughput image revealed that the large scale distribution of mass in that part of the sky was concentrated in a small region. That region turned out to correspond to the galaxy cluster -- the first time such an object has been discovered on the basis of its mass properties rather than its light.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0108/lenscluster_btc_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Distortion from a Distant Cluster",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0108/lenscluster_btc.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Nicolas Lefaudeux",
		"date": "2021-03-08",
		"explanation": "What created the unusual red tail in Comet NEOWISE? Sodium.  A spectacular sight back in the summer of 2020, Comet NEOWISE, at times, displayed something more than just a surprisingly striated white dust tail and a pleasingly patchy blue ion tail. Some color sensitive images showed an unusual red tail, and analysis showed much of this third tail's color was emitted by sodium.  Gas rich in sodium atoms might have been liberated from Comet NEOWISE's warming nucleus in early July by bright sunlight, electrically charged by ultraviolet sunlight, and then pushed out by the solar wind. The featured image was captured in mid-July from Brittany, France and shows the real colors. Sodium comet tails have been seen before but are rare -- this one disappeared by late July.  Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) has since faded, lost all of its bright tails, and now approaches the orbit of Jupiter as it heads back to the outer Solar System, to return only in about 7,000 years.    Astrophysicists: Browse 2,400+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/Neowise3Tails_Lefaudeux_1088.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Three Tails of Comet NEOWISE",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/Neowise3Tails_Lefaudeux_960.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1998-07-24",
		"explanation": "On another Friday (May 5, 1961), at the dawn of the space age, NASA controllers \"lit the candle\" and sent Alan B. Shepard Jr. arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket. The picture shows the pressure-suited Shepard before the launch in his cramped space capsule dubbed \"Freedom 7\" . This historic flight - the first spaceflight by an American - made Shepard a national hero. Born in East Derry, New Hampshire on November 18, 1923, Shepard graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1944 and went on to train and serve as a Naval Aviator. Chosen as one of the original seven Mercury Program astronauts, he considered this first flight the greatest challenge and actively sought the assignment. Shepard's accomplishments in his career as an astronaut spanned a remarkable period in human achievement and in 1972 he walked on the moon as commander of the Apollo 14 mission. A true pioneer and intrepid explorer, Alan Shepard died Tuesday at age 74 after a lengthy illness.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9807/shepard_freedom7_big.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Alan B. Shepard Jr. 1923-1998",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9807/shepard_freedom7.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "1997-09-14",
		"explanation": "The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. Astronomers have recently used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one above. Here, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the \"hourglass\". The unprecedented sharpness of the HST images has revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process and may help resolve the outstanding mystery of the variety of complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulae.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9709/mycn18_hst_big.gif",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "MyCn18: An Hourglass Nebula",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/9709/mycn18_hst.jpg"
	},
	{
		"copyright": "Clear Skies",
		"date": "2014-07-31",
		"explanation": "Transfusing sunlight through a still dark sky, this exceptional display of noctilucent clouds was captured earlier this month above the island of Gotland, Sweden. From the edge of space, about 80 kilometers above Earth's surface, the icy clouds reflect sunlight even though the Sun itself is below the horizon as seen from the ground. Usually spotted at high latitudes in summer months the night shining clouds made a strong showing this July. Also known as polar mesopheric clouds they are understood to form as water vapor driven into the cold upper atmosphere condenses on the fine dust particles supplied by disintegrating meteors or volcanic ash. NASA's AIM mission provides daily projections of noctilucent clouds as seen from space.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1407/strongNLCs_heden.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "Veins of Heaven",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1407/strongNLCs_heden.jpg"
	},
	{
		"date": "2011-10-26",
		"explanation": "A fourth moon is visible on the above image if you look hard enough. First -- and farthest in the background -- is Titan, the largest moon of Saturn and one of the larger moons in the Solar System.  The dark feature across the top of this perpetually cloudy world is the north polar hood. The next most obvious moon is bright Dione, visible in the foreground, complete with craters and long ice cliffs. Jutting in from the left are several of Saturn's expansive rings, including Saturn's A ring featuring the dark Encke Gap. On the far right, just outside the rings, is Pandora, a moon only 80-kilometers across that helps shepherd Saturn's F ring. The fourth moon?  If you look closely in the Encke Gap you'll find a speck that is actually Pan. Although one of Saturn's smallest moons at 35-kilometers across, Pan is massive enough to help keep the Encke gap relatively free of ring particles.",
		"hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1110/fourmoons_cassini_1004.jpg",
		"media_type": "image",
		"service_version": "v1",
		"title": "In, Through, and Beyond Saturn's Rings",
		"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1110/fourmoons_cassini_900.jpg"
	}
]