June 19, 1996
On the day you arrived, the Earth was spinning at a thousand miles per hour, orbiting the Sun at sixty-seven thousand.
Aurora: Curtains in the Sky
Birthday · June 19, 1996
A little universe, just for you
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APOD published June 19, 1996. Credit: Michael Dolan (Michigan Tech.). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Looking out over Lake Superior at dusk you see Venus (lower left) and ... curtains? Like an ant looking up at window curtains, aurora frequently appear as huge flowing light displays. These colorful, often spectacular phenomena are most frequently visible from locations near the Earth's poles. Aurora are caused by electrons from the solar wind funneling to Earth along magnetic field lines, and striking atoms and molecules in our atmosphere. Auroral color is determined by which atmospheric ions are struck and recombine to form neutral atoms. Hourly updates of auroral sightings are posted to the WWW. It is still controversial whether aurora make any sound audible from the ground. If you think you have "heard an aurora," please report it!
Image credit: Michael Dolan (Michigan Tech.)