June 14, 2004
On the day you arrived, the Earth was spinning at a thousand miles per hour, orbiting the Sun at sixty-seven thousand.
Unusual Layers on Saturn's Moon Phoebe
Birthday · June 14, 2004
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APOD published June 14, 2004. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What caused the unusual light and dark layers on Saturn's moon Phoebe? The layers were discovered just Friday during the Cassini spacecraft flyby of the small moon. Such layering is particularly evident on the crater just above the image center, where alternating light and dark material makes this crater appear particularly structured. Cassini scientists speculate that such layering might result from an impact where a dark surface layer becomes intertwined with a lighter subsurface ice layer. The above image spans about 80 kilometers and was taken when Cassini was only about 13,000 kilometers from Phoebe. At the end of June, the Cassini spacecraft will be instructed to fire its thrusters to decelerate into orbit around Saturn.