APOD: 2016 February 25 - Highest, Tallest, and Closest to the Stars
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
professional astronomer.
2016 February 25
[2]
Highest, Tallest, and Closest to the Stars
Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Jeff Dai [4] , O Chul Kwon [5] , Stephane
Guisard [6] (Los Cielos de America [7] ), TWAN [8]
Explanation: Fans of planet Earth [9] probably recognize its highest mountain, the Himalayan Mount Everest [10] , on the left in this 3-panel skyscape of The World at Night. [11] Shrouded in cloud Everest's peak is at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) elevation above sea level. In the middle panel, stars trail
above volcanic Mauna Kea [12] forming part of the island of Hawaii. Festooned with astronomical observatories, its summit lies a mere 4,168 meters above sea level. Still, measured from its base starting below the ocean's surface, Mauna Kea is over 10,000 meters tall, making it Earth's tallest mountain from base
to summit. At right, beneath the arc of the Milky Way is the Andean mountain Chimborazo in Ecuador [13] . The highest equatorial mountain, the Chimborazo volcano's peak elevation is 6,268 meters above sea level. But rotating [14] planet Earth is a flattened sphere [15] (oblate spheroid [16] ) in shape, its equatorial diameter greater than its diameter measured pole to pole. Sitting nearly on top of Earth's greatest equatorial bulge, Chimborazo's peak is the farthest point on the planet's surface [17] from the center, over 2,000
meters farther from the center of the Earth than Everest's peak. That makes Chimborazo's summit the place on Earth's surface closest to the stars [18] .
Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space [19]
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [30] (MTU [31] ) & Jerry Bonnell [32]
(UMCP [33] )
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [34] .
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [35]
A service of: ASD [36] at NASA [37] / GSFC [38]
& Michigan Tech. U. [39]
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Site notes:
[1] archivepix.html
[2] image/1602/Everest-MaunaKea-Chimborazo-1800x600-cp8.jpg
[3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
[4]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffdai/
[5]
http://www.twanight.org/kwon
[6]
http://www.twanight.org/guisard
[7]
http://www.astrosurf.com/sguisard/
[8]
http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/index.asp
[9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_tallest_mountains_in_the_Solar_System
[10]
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffdai/24080910521/
[11]
http://www.twanight.org/
[12]
http://blog.kwonochul.com/606
[13]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Geodesic_Mission
[14]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Equatorial_bulge#Other_celestial_bodies
[15]
http://www.universetoday.com/66515/ how-many-miles-around-the-earth/
[16]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_the_Earth
[17]
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
[18]
http://sguisard.astrosurf.com/Pagim/Chimborazo.html
[19] ap160226.html
[20] ap160224.html
[21] archivepix.html
[22] lib/apsubmit2015.html
[23]
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
[24] calendar/allyears.html
[25] /apod.rss
[26] lib/edlinks.html
[27] lib/about_apod.html
[28]
http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=160225
[29] ap160226.html
[30]
http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
[31]
http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
[32]
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
[33]
http://www.astro.umd.edu/
[34] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
[35]
http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
[36]
http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
[37]
http://www.nasa.gov/
[38]
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
[39]
http://www.mtu.edu/
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