July 11, 2005
Light takes eight minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth. It took the universe 13.8 billion years to make you.
Sunrise Over Kilimanjaro
Birthday · July 11, 2005
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed
Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.
Date & occasion only
Change the year
APOD published July 11, 2005. Credit: Clayton Hogen-Chin (U. Minnesota). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Is the Roof of Africa on fire? A group hiking at 6 am near the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro watched the rising sun peak above the clouds and the horizon light up red. Don't worry -- in this case the highest volcano in Africa is not even erupting. The spectacular sunrise colors are caused by light scattering off the atmosphere and small cloud particles. If all of the scattered light that makes the sky blue were added back into the scene, the sunrise would appear Sun-colored and not so red. A similar light scattering effect involving small airborne dust particles causes sunsets on Mars to be red and has been used to determine the sizes of particles in the rings of Saturn. During this trek in 2000 November, a group of about 30 reached the Kilomanjaro summit after a six-day climb.
Image credit: Clayton Hogen-Chin (U. Minnesota)