November 12, 2009
The Moon has changed phase thousands of times since the beginning of the cosmos, but only once did it shine on the night you arrived.
Art and Science in NGC 918
Birthday · November 12, 2009
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published November 12, 2009. Credit: Joseph Brimacombe. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
This beautiful telescopic skyscape features spiral galaxy NGC 918. The island universe is about 50,000 light-years across and lies some 60 million light-years away toward the constellation Aries. An artistic presentation, the image shows spiky foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy and convoluted dust clouds that hang hundreds of light-years above our galactic plane, dimly reflecting starlight. It also captures NGC 918 in a cosmic moment important to astrophysicists on planet Earth. Light from supernova SN2009js, absent in previous images, is indicated by the two lines just below and left of the galaxy's center. The supernova itself is the death explosion of a massive star within the plane of galaxy NGC 918. It was just discovered in October by supernova search teams in Japan and the US.
Image credit: Joseph Brimacombe