February 25, 2024
On your birthday, photons that left distant stars before humans walked the Earth finally completed their journey. You began yours.
A Phoenix Aurora over Iceland
Birthday · February 25, 2024
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APOD published February 25, 2024. Credit: Hallgrimur P. Helgason; Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
All of the other aurora watchers had gone home. By 3:30 am in Iceland, on a quiet September night, much of that night's auroras had died down. Suddenly, unexpectedly, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the Earth's atmosphere once again. This time, surprisingly, pareidoliacally, the night lit up with an amazing shape reminiscent of a giant phoenix. With camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately by a third of the land. The mountain in the background is Helgafell, while the small foreground river is called Kaldá, both located about 30 kilometers north of Iceland's capital Reykjavík. Seasoned skywatchers will note that just above the mountain, toward the left, is the constellation of Orion, while the Pleiades star cluster is also visible just above the frame center. The 2016 aurora, which lasted only a minute and was soon gone forever -- would possibly be dismissed as a fanciful fable -- were it not captured in the featured, digitally-composed, image mosaic. Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995)
Image credit: Hallgrimur P. Helgason; Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt