April 21, 1998
On your birthday, photons that left distant stars before humans walked the Earth finally completed their journey. You began yours.
Water in Orion
Birthday · April 21, 1998
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published April 21, 1998. Credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Is Orion all wet? Recent observations have confirmed that water molecules now exist in the famous Orion Nebula, and are still forming. The Orion Nebula (M42, shown above) is known to be composed mostly of hydrogen gas, with all other atoms and molecules being comparatively rare. The nebula is so vast, though, that even the measured minuscule production rate creates enough water to fill Earth's oceans 60 times over every day, speculate discoverers led by M. Harwit (Cornell). The water that composes comets, the oceans of Earth, and even humans may have been created in a cloud like the Orion Nebula.
Image credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board