APOD 2.3

This picture really draws your eye. It is a very colorful depiction of a rainbow and green aurora streaks above the cliff. The water droplets drifted from the waterfall to form the rainbow. The light reflected from the nearly full moon reflects the light to form the rainbow. Beyond the cliff in the sky you can see the Big Dipper, part of the constellation Ursa Major.

APOD 2.2

This is a shot of Asteroid 2005 YU55. This massive asteroid passed by Earth on November 8th. It is 400 meters across and passed by within the Moon's orbit. It did not pose any danger, but if it were to hit land it would cause a magnitude 7 earthquake as well as leave a small city sized crater. If it had struck in an ocean, it could have caused a massive tsunami. This is the largest asteroid to have passed this close to Earth since 1976.



APOD 2.1

This is an image of the constellation Cepheus. The weird shapes surrounding the stars are cosmic dust clouds faintly visible in dimly reflected starlight.  These cosmic dust clouds are 1,200 light years away from our location on Earth. The core of the dark cloud on the right is collapsing and is likely a binary star system in the early stages of formation. These spooky shapes almost look like ghosts.