The Universe 365 Days [antikvár]

TRAVEL TO MERCURY. SEE PLANET EARTH FROM THE MOON. WATCH AS STARS ARE BORN AND DIE. DISCOVER THE COSMOS! HOW? READ THIS BOOK.The images in this book comprise three hundred and sixty-five of thé authors' selections from the popular website Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). The best and most interesting entries from six years of these daily web offerings have now been gleaned, groomed, and otherwise made présentable in print. Many of the pictures are presented here in finer detail than ever before. The book does not represent a major advance for galactic civilization but it does have galaxies in it.As a website. APOD was first conceived during a freewheeling brainstorming session on the future and value of the World Wide Web. then in its infancy. The setting was NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center where the authors shared an office in the Compton Observatory Science Support Center in 1995. One perspective that repeatedly emerged from the often calm and occasionally well-reasoned discussion was that the web could be viewed as a continuatly developing encyclopedie that still lacked many of the significant entries. How could we contribute?We agreed that a simple présentation of an astronomy picture with a supporting hyperlinked text, ultimately an astronomy picture of the day, would be the most practical for us, considering that we were actually supposed to be professional astronomers. So, following a long-standing tradition in science, we immediately went back to our normal work and ongoing research projects and did nothing about it.Several lunches later, however, we still liked the idea. We were having a slow month. which gave us-time to cobble together a few entries. Since that seemingly harmiess series of events on planet Earth in June 1995. the APOD website has presented Internet audiences with a different astronomy and space science-related image