August 5, 1995
In the grand ledger of cosmic time, a human life is breathtakingly brief. But brevity is not insignificance.
Geysers on Triton
Birthday · August 5, 1995
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APOD published August 5, 1995. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
August 5, 1995 Geysers on Triton Credit: NASA, Voyager Project, Copyright Calvin J. Hamilton Explanation: In August of 1989 NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft passed by Neptune, the most distant of the solar system's gas giant planets. Its encounter with Neptune climaxed with its closest approach to Neptune's largest moon Triton. From a distance of about 24,000 miles the robot space probe surveyed Triton's surface, whose temperature averages nearly -400 degrees Fahrenheit, and discovered surprising evidence of a complex and active world. For example, the prominent dark streaks in this image seem to come from small volcanoes and may consist of nitrogen frost mixed with organic compounds ejected during geyser-like eruptions. For more information about Triton, see Calvin J. Hamilton's Triton page .