July 28, 1996
The same gravity that holds galaxies together and keeps planets in their orbits also held you to the Earth on the day you were born.
Huck Finn's New Sky View
Birthday · July 28, 1996
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published July 28, 1996. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
"We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened." (from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) Explanation: Even the faintest stars Huck and Jim could see as their raft drifted down the Mississippi were in our own Galaxy. The faintest objects astronomers can see today are the distant galaxies -- entire systems of stars comparable to our own Milky Way, which fill the Universe. Despite the advances, the sense of wonder so simply expressed in Huck's musing is still the same.