              APOD: 2017 September 18 - Orion above Easter Island

                         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.

                              2017 September 18
                                      [2]
                          Orion above Easter Island
  Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Yuri Beletsky [4] (Carnegie [5] Las Campanas
                         Observatory [6] , TWAN [7] )

Explanation: Why were the statues on Easter Island [8]  built? No one is sure.
What is sure is that over 800 large stone statues exist there. The Easter
Island statues [9] , stand, on the average, over twice as tall as a person and
have over 200 times as much mass. Few specifics are known about the history or
meaning of the unusual rock sculptures [10] , but many believe that they were
created about 700 years ago in the images [11] of local leaders of a lost
civilization. Featured here, one of the ancient Moai sculptures [12] was
imaged in 2016 before the constellation of Orion [13] , including the famous
line of three belt stars [14]  and brilliant stars Betelgeuse [15]  (far left
in red) and Rigel [16]  (upper center). The stone [17] giant [18]  appears,
however, to be inspecting [19]  the brightest star in the night sky (far
right): Sirius [20] .

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                  Tomorrow's picture: wisps of the veil [25]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [37] (MTU [38] ) & Jerry Bonnell [39]
                                  (UMCP [40] )
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1709/EasterIslandOrion_Beletsky_950.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] https://www.instagram.com/yuribeletsky/
  [5] http://carnegiescience.edu/
  [6] http://www.lco.cl/
  [7] http://www.twanight.org/
  [8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island
  [9] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter/civilization/giants.html
  [10] http://www.eisp.org/
  [11] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hO-vCPuuQQ
  [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai
  [13] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/constellations/orion.html
  [14] ap160328.html
  [15] ap100106.html
  [16]
http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/blue-white-rigel-is-orions-brightest-star
  [17] ap040524.html
  [18] ap091012.html
  [19]
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-maGwAMHjNNg/T2eELI03FHI/AAAAAAAACgs/0oKYy7NKX7s/s640/
cat+bubble+bath+cat+on+bathtub.jpg
  [20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
  [21] https://www.facebook.com/AstronomyPictureOfTheDay
  [22] https://plus.google.com/u/1/+AstronomyPictureOfTheDay
  [23] https://www.instagram.com/astronomypicturesdaily/
  [24] http://twitter.com/apod/
  [25] ap170919.html
  [26] ap170917.html
  [27] archivepix.html
  [28] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [29] lib/aptree.html
  [30] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [31] calendar/allyears.html
  [32] /apod.rss
  [33] lib/edlinks.html
  [34] lib/about_apod.html
  [35] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=170918
  [36] ap170919.html
  [37] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [38] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [39] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [40] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [41] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [42] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [43] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [44] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [45] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [46] http://www.mtu.edu/
