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Birthday · November 7, 2016

Inverted City Beneath Clouds

November 7, 2016

You share your birthday with the light of distant galaxies that has been traveling for millions of years just to arrive here, now, alongside...

Inverted City Beneath Clouds

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APOD published November 7, 2016. Credit: Mark Hersch. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.

Behind the image

Inverted City Beneath Clouds

Original APOD · November 7, 2016

How could that city be upside-down? The city, Chicago, was actually perfectly right-side up. The long shadows it projected onto nearby Lake Michigan near sunset, however, when seen in reflection, made the buildings appear inverted. This fascinating, puzzling, yet beautiful image was captured by a photographer in 2014 on an airplane on approach to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The Sun can be seen both above and below the cloud deck, with the latter reflected in the calm lake. As a bonus, if you look really closely -- and this is quite a challenge -- you can find another airplane in the image, likely also on approach to the same airport.

Image credit: Mark Hersch

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