May 27, 2019
Consider this: the iron in your blood was forged in a supernova explosion billions of years ago.
A Volcano of Fire under a Milky Way of Stars
Birthday · May 27, 2019
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APOD published May 27, 2019. Credit: Diego Rizzo. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Sometimes it's hard to decide which is more impressive -- the land or the sky. On the land of the featured image, for example, the Volcano of Fire (Volc�n de Fuego) is seen erupting topped by red-hot, wind-blown ash and with streams of glowing lava running down its side. Lights from neighboring towns are seen through a thin haze below. In the sky, though, the central plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs diagonally from the upper left, with a fleeting meteor just below, and the trail of a satellite to the upper right. The planet Jupiter also appears toward the upper left, with the bright star Antares just to its right. Much of the land and the sky were captured together in a single, well-timed, 25-second exposure taken in mid-April from the side of Fuego's sister volcano Acatenango in Guatemala. The image of the meteor, though, was captured in a similar frame taken about 30 minutes earlier -- when the volanic eruption was not as photogenic -- and added later digitally. Follow APOD on: Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter
Image credit: Diego Rizzo