1. Tour of the Galaxy

2. Welcome to Planet Earth, 3 rd planet from the Sun. Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is water. The planet has a relatively thin atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. This picture of Earth, dubbed Blue Marble, was taken from Apollo 17 in 1972.

3. In December of 1968, the Apollo 8 crew flew from the Earth to the Moon and back again. (Earthrise)

4. Earth at night.

5. Blackout on the east coast. August 14, 2003

6. Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico August 29, 2005

7. The Sun is a ball of extremely hot gas. Picture was taken by Skylab in 1973 throwing off a large prominence. The Sun has survived for 5 billion years, and will likely survive another 5 billion. The Sun is not on fire and will never explode.

8. How long would it take to drive to the Sun? The Sun is 93 million miles away. So, if we drove 93 miles per hour the trip would only take us 1 million hours. (it would take over 100 years)

9. If a rocket took off from Earth traveling 1,000 mph, then it would take 10 years to reach the Sun. If a rocket took off from Earth traveling 1,000 mph, then it would take 450 years to reach Pluto.

10. Sun spots

11. Close up of a sun spot

12. Total solar eclipse -moon passes between the sun and Earth

13. Horsehead Nebula Around 1,500 light years away from Earth. Speed of light = 300,000 km/sec It takes light a little over 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth.

14. Proxima Centauri: The Closest Star Light takes only 4.22 years to reach us from Proxima Centauri.

15. The Great Nebula in Orion 1,500 light years away

16. The Witch Head Nebula 1,000 light years away

17. Heart Nebula 7,500 light years away

18. Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula 7,000 light years away

19. The Coma Cluster of Galaxies Almost every object in the above photograph is a galaxy. The Coma Cluster of Galaxies contains thousands of galaxies. Each of these galaxies houses billions of stars - just as our own Milky Way Galaxy does. Light from the Coma Cluster takes hundreds of millions of years to reach us.

20. Milky Way Galaxy Jupiter

21. At the Center of the Milky Way lies a black hole with over 2 million times the mass of the Sun

22. The Brightest Supernova Yet Found This supernova explosion was so inherently bright that it could be seen nearly 5 billion light years away

23. Spiral galaxy NGC 2903 is 20 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.

24. Andromeda Island Universe (spiral galaxy) Two and a half million light-years away

25. Majestic Island Universe (barred spiral galaxy) 60 million light years away

26. Irregular Galaxy 12 million light years away

27. This stunning group of galaxies is about 450 million light-years away. Dominated by the cluster's large central elliptical galaxy. The giant elliptical galaxy spans over 100,000 light years and contains about 100 billion stars.