July 8, 2003
Somewhere in the sky tonight, a star is being born in a cloud of gas and dust, beginning a journey that will last billions of years.
Mt. Anatahan Erupts
Birthday · July 8, 2003
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APOD published July 8, 2003. Credit: Allan Sauter (Scripps). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Nobody suspected that this volcano would erupt. Mt. Anatahan has not erupted in recorded history. Nevertheless, on May 10, the small volcano in the Northern Mariana Islands of the western Pacific Ocean shot ash 10,000 meters into the air. Explosions from Mt. Anatahan continued every few minutes for two days. The airborne ash was so bad that some flights were cancelled from downwind Guam. Although meter-sized rocks were catapulted through the air, nobody was hurt, as a seismology team that coincidentally installed detectors on the island a few days before had already left. Fortunately, the team was not too far away to get the above picture.
Image credit: Allan Sauter (Scripps)