November 23, 2009
On your birthday, photons that left distant stars before humans walked the Earth finally completed their journey. You began yours.
Crescent Earth from the Departing Rosetta Spacecraft
Birthday · November 23, 2009
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published November 23, 2009. Credit: ESA (MPS for OSIRIS Team), MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Behind the image
Crescent Earth from the Departing Rosetta Spacecraft
Original APOD · November 23, 2009 ↗Goodbye Earth. Earlier this month, ESA's interplanetary Rosetta spacecraft zoomed past the Earth on its way back across the Solar System. Pictured above, Earth showed a bright crescent phase featuring the South Pole to the passing rocket ship. Launched from Earth in 2004, Rosetta used the gravity of the Earth to help propel it out past Mars and toward a 2014 rendezvous with Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Last year, the robot spacecraft passed asteroid 2867 Steins, and next year it is scheduled to pass enigmatic asteroid 21 Lutetia. If all goes well, Rosetta will release a probe that will land on the 15-km diameter comet in 2014.
Image credit: ESA (MPS for OSIRIS Team), MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA