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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

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

Earth, Moon, Hubble

Explanation: The Space Shuttle Discovery Crew was fortunate enough to witness one of the brighter full moon's from orbit two weeks ago during their mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope . Pictured on the left , the horizon of the Earth is visible below this full Moon , which is below the edge of the Hubble Space Telescope . The full Moon on this day, last December 22 , was a few percent brighter than average because it was full at nearly the same time it was at its closest to the Earth, which comes at a time when the Earth is relatively close to the Sun. The Shuttle Crew successfully showered Hubble with needed holiday gifts, including six new gyroscopes , a new computer , and new batteries .

Date January 5, 2000
Credit Credit: STS-103 Crew , NASA
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.