April 16, 2026
A birthday is what happens when cosmic time briefly puts down the scale of eons and pays attention to a single human year.
South Celestial Tree
Birthday · April 16, 2026
A little universe, just for you
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APOD published April 16, 2026. Credit: Kiko Fairbairn. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
If you live in the northern hemisphere, you may have learned how to locate the North Star, Polaris, in the night sky. It can be used to find north, and it approximately marks the northern celestial pole. If you live in the southern hemisphere, there is no bright star marking the southern celestial pole, but the Southern Cross can be used to find south. The featured image was taken in Padre Bernardo (GO), Brazil. It shows the apparent motion of the stars around the apparently empty southern celestial pole over 2 hours, on August 20, 2018. Each star takes about 24 hours to make a complete turn around the pole in the sky. Padre Bernardo is located in the Cerrado region, a tropical savanna that occupies most of central Brazil and supports rich biodiversity. The barren branch that apparently supports this sky wheel of rotating stars is a common sight there in the dry season during the southern winter.
Image credit: Kiko Fairbairn