An Astronomical Alphabet  |  History  |  Quiz
 

An Astronomical Alphabet

The future is written in the stars. Or at least the alphabet is written up there. Sometimes with poor penmanship. Other times in gorgeous calligraphy.

Planetary Nebula Sun Callisto Earth Barnard's E Mars Terrain IC 443 Supernova Remnant Venus Barred Spiral Galaxy M87 Radio Jet Cygnus Loop SNR Hubble Deep Field Galaxies Mars Terrain M 83 Annular solar eclipse NGC 4038 E0102-72 in the SMC Sun Snake Nebula Herbig-Haro Jet Sun Comet Hale-Bopp WR Star Southern Crab Nebula Mars' North Polar Cap Hubble Deep Field Galaxy

While these pictures form an interesting collection, to really educate yourself with some of the ABC's of astronomy click on any of the pictures to view the far-more-interesting complete images and contexts from which these pictures were derived.

To provoke a little thought, you might be interested in taking the Astronomical Alphabet Quiz.

Click here to see all the letters combined in a single JPEG picture (about 100 kB).

Thanks to the original authors of all of the above pictures for making their work available.

Credits & Copyrights:

  1. J.P. Harrington and K.J. Borkowski (University of Maryland), and NASA
  2. Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
  3. Paul M. Schenk, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX.
  4. NSSDC, NASA photo ID AS11-44-6642
  5. Credit and Copyright: B. Wallis and R. Provin
  6. The Unites States Geological Survey - Astrogeology Team and The Planetary Data System - Imaging Node
  7. 2MASS Collaboration, U. Mass., IPAC
  8. Planetary Photojournal Development Team, JPL
  9. Copyright: Anglo-Australian Observatory, Photograph by David Malin
  10. F. Owen, NRAO, with J. Biretta, STSCI, & J. Eilek, NMIMT
  11. NOAO/NSF. Copyright Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc. (AURA), all rights reserved.
  12. R. Williams and the HDF Team (STScI) and NASA
  13. NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
  14. NOAO/NSF. Copyright: Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc. (AURA), all rights reserved.
  15. Copyright 1999 by Fred Espenak, courtesy of www.MrEclipse.com
  16. Brad Whitmore (STScI), and NASA
  17. NASA/CXC/SAO
  18. Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
  19. Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight, CFHT
  20. C. Burrows (STScI & ESA), the WFPC 2 Investigation Definition Team, and NASA
  21. Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
  22. Copyright: Alessandro Dimai
  23. Yves Grosdidier (University of Montreal and Observatoire de Strasbourg), Anthony Moffat (Universitie de Montreal), Gilles Joncas (Universite Laval), Agnes Acker (Observatoire de Strasbourg), and NASA
  24. Romano Corradi, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain; Mario Livio, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.; Ulisse Munari, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova-Asiago, Italy; Hugo Schwarz, Nordic Optical Telescope, Canarias, Spain; and NASA
  25. USGS, NASA
  26. R. Williams and the HDF Team (STScI) and NASA

If you're still reading this, then you might be interested to know the short history of the Astronomical Alphabet.

Mail suggestions for better letters or links to Rick Arendt at .
Original Version: November 28, 1999
Last Update: March 17, 2007

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