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Space gallery online
By David Santucci (CNN Sci-Tech)
(CNN) -- An art gallery of astronomy can be found online featuring explosive supernovas, deep black holes, flaring comets and breathtaking earth views. Every day, since 1995, two enthusiastic astronomers have posted a new image to Astronomy Picture of the Day, housed under NASA's Web site. "I think that a lot of these would look great in a gallery. They are very different, there's lot of different colors, and contrasts, textures and they have the added bonus of being scientifically interesting," says Robert Nemiroff of the Michigan Technological University and his partner Jerry Bonnell of the University Space Research Association. They choose the images based on their educational value, newsworthiness, or beauty. "There's a wow factor here. I usually know within a second or two of seeing a picture whether its a sure thing for Astronomy Picture of the Day because I just say wow, what is going on there," says Nemiroff. Every image is archived on the site. Underneath each picture is a brief explanation so that the site is not just eye candy, but educational as well. Including images that give us a new perspective. "Recently people put together this panorama from the moon and you can see as if you are turning 360 degrees around. And so there's this wow factor. You can look as if you were standing on the moon and see what the astronauts saw," adds Nemiroff. He also says that as far as the debate over the face shape on mars, the best explanation is that it's just a rock formation, even though there are many people who think it's more than just a face. "The earth at night is one of [their] most popular images. And you can click on the image and that will bring up a higher resolution image that you can find your hometown on. Its not just one shot, it was built up by defense satellites," says Nemiroff. Some images come from telescopes around the world, others from the Hubble Telescope peering deep into space, others from amateur photographers and artists renditions of black holes too distant for detail. The site's creators say many people take the images from the site and post them as wallpaper on their computers or create a slide show screen saver. "Our biggest demographic is the intelligent professional. They've got a computer on their desk, they've got a web browser and they check us out. We are many people's morning cup of coffee," adds Nemiroff. Whether you're a space junkie or just enjoy looking up at the sky, Astronomy Picture of the Day is worth the visit.
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