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.

December 17, 1998
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

The Night Shift
Credit: STS-88 Mission, NASA

Explanation: For the orbiting International Space Station (ISS), the sun sets every 90 minutes. But working through the night, spacewalking astronauts can rely on artificial lighting. Here, the eerie glow of work-lights illuminate Space Shuttle Endeavor astronaut Jerry Ross during a night on his second spacewalk as he continues the in orbit assembly of the ISS. Endeavor landed at Kennedy Space Center Tuesday night bringing an end to the successful ISS assembly mission and the final shuttle mission of 1998.

Tomorrow's picture: Carbon Star

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
&: Michigan Tech. U.