September 2, 2013
On the day you were born, the universe did what it has always done best: transformed chaos into beauty.
Milky Way Over Spain's Bardenas Reales
Birthday · September 2, 2013
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed
Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.
Date & occasion only
Change the year
APOD published September 2, 2013. Credit: Maria Rosa Vila. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What's that below the Milky Way? First, across the top of the above image, lies the faint band that is our planet's sideways view of the central disk of our home Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way band can be seen most clear nights from just about anywhere on Earth with a dark sky. What lies beneath is, by comparison, is a much less common sight. It is the striking peak of Castildetierra, a rock formation located in Bardenas Reales, a natural badlands in northeast Spain. Standing 50 meters tall, the rock spire includes clay and sandstone left over from thousands of years of erosion by wind and water. The astrophotographer waited months for the sky to appear just right -- and then took the 14 exposures that compose the above image in a single night. In Spanish: Follow APOD on the web and on Facebook.
Image credit: Maria Rosa Vila