March 17, 2017
Consider this: the iron in your blood was forged in a supernova explosion billions of years ago.
Phases of Venus
Birthday · March 17, 2017
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APOD published March 17, 2017. Credit: Daniel Herron. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Just as the Moon goes through phases, Venus' visible sunlit hemisphere waxes and wanes. This composite of telescopic images illustrates the steady changes for the inner planet, seen in the west as the evening star, as Venus grows larger but narrows to a thin crescent from December 20, 2016 through March 10. Gliding along its interior orbit between Earth and Sun, Venus grows larger during that period because it is approaching planet Earth. Its crescent narrows, though, as Venus swings closer to our line-of-sight to the Sun. Closest to the Earth-Sun line but passing about 8 degrees north of the Sun on March 25, Venus will reach a (non-judgmental) inferior conjunction. Soon after, Venus will shine clearly above the eastern horizon in predawn skies as planet Earth's morning star.
Image credit: Daniel Herron