Launches
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September 13 in spaceflight
Wikipedia records 6 spaceflight and astronomy events on September 13. Below are the pictures NASA published on September 13 in 5 different years — each one taken or released on this exact date.
Recorded events
IN THE RECORD6ENTRIES
Spaceflight and astronomy entries from Wikipedia's record of this date, oldest first — from -509 onward.
Pictures from this date
PUBLISHED5IMAGES
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 13, one per year. Some are public domain and some belong to the photographer — each says which.
Published on September 13
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, for this calendar date in each of the last several years.
2025
Star Trails over One-Mile Radio Telescope
The steerable 60 foot diameter dish antenna of the One-Mile Telescope at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, UK, is pointing skyward in this evocative night-skyscape. To capture the dramatic scene, consecutive 30 second exposures were recorded over a period of 90 minutes. Combined, the exposures reveal a background of gracefully arcing star trails that reflect planet Earth's daily rotation on its axis. The North Celestial Pole, the extension of Earth's axis of rotation into space, points near Polaris, the North Star. That's the bright star that creates the short trail near the center of the concentric arcs. But the historic One-Mile Telescope array also relied on planet Earth's rotation to operate. Exploring the universe at radio wavelengths, it was the first radio telescope to use Earth-rotation aperture synthesis. That technique uses the rotation of the Earth to change the relative orientation of the telescope array and celestial radio sources to create high resolution radio maps of the sky.
© Joao Yordanov Serralheiro — used with the credit NASA publishes
2024
Aurora Australis and the International Space Station
This snapshot from the International Space Station was taken on August 11 while orbiting about 430 kilometers above the Indian Ocean, Southern Hemisphere, planet Earth. The spectacular view looks south and east, down toward the planet's horizon and through red and green curtains of aurora australis. The auroral glow is caused by emission from excited oxygen atoms in the extremely rarefied upper atmosphere still present at the level of the orbiting outpost. Green emission from atomic oxygen dominates this scene at altitudes of 100 to 250 kilometers, while red emission from atomic oxygen can extend as high as 500 kilometers altitude. Beyond the glow of these southern lights, this view from low Earth orbit reveals the starry sky from a southern hemisphere perspective. Stars in Orion's belt and the Orion Nebula are near the Earth's limb just left of center. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major and brightest star in planet Earth's night is above center along the right edge of the southern orbital skyscape. Looking Up: International Observe the Moon Night
NASA · public domain
2023
NGC 4632: Galaxy with a Hidden Polar Ring
Galaxy NGC 4632 hides a secret from optical telescopes. It is surrounded by a ring of cool hydrogen gas orbiting at 90 degrees to its spiral disk. Such polar ring galaxies have previously been discovered using starlight. However, NGC 4632 is among the first in which a radio telescope survey revealed a polar ring. The featured composite image combines this gas ring, observed with the highly sensitive ASKAP telescope, with optical data from the Subaru telescope. Using virtual reality, astronomers separated out the gas in the main disk of the galaxy from the ring, and the subtle color gradient traces its orbital motion. Why do polar rings exist? They could be material pulled from one galaxy as it gravitationally interacts with a companion. Or hydrogen gas flows along the filaments of the cosmic web and accretes into a ring around a galaxy, some of which gravitationally contracts into stars.
NASA · public domain
2022
A Long Snaking Filament on the Sun
rlier this month, the Sun exhibited one of the longer filaments on record. Visible as the bright curving streak around the image center, the snaking filament's full extent was estimated to be over half of the Sun's radius -- more than 350,000 kilometers long. A filament is composed of hot gas held aloft by the Sun's magnetic field, so that viewed from the side it would appear as a raised prominence. A different, smaller prominence is simultaneously visible at the Sun's edge. The featured image is in false-color and color-inverted to highlight not only the filament but the Sun's carpet chromosphere. The bright dot on the upper right is actually a dark sunspot about the size of the Earth. Solar filaments typically last from hours to days, eventually collapsing to return hot plasma back to the Sun. Sometimes, though, they explode and expel particles into the Solar System, some of which trigger auroras on Earth. The pictured filament appeared in early September and continued to hold steady for about a week.
© Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination) — used with the credit NASA publishes
2021
Night Sky Reflected
What's that in the mirror? In the featured image of the dark southern sky, the three brightest galaxies of the night are all relatively easy to identify. Starting from the left, these are the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. All three are also seen reflected in a shallow pool of water. But what is seen in the mirror being positioned by the playful astrophotographer? Dust clouds near the center of our Milky Way -- and the planet Jupiter. The composite was carefully planned and composed from images captured from the same camera in the same location and during the same night in mid-2019 in Mostardas, south Brazil. The picture won first place in the Connecting to the Dark division of the International Dark-Sky Association's Capture the Dark contest for 2021. Quiz: What is pictured in the double-reflection below the main mirror?
© Egon Filter — used with the credit NASA publishes
What happened on September 13
-509
According to Roman tradition, the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (depicted), the most important temple in ancient Rome, was dedicated.
Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus ↗-509
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September.
Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus ↗
1906
The Santos-Dumont 14-bis makes a short hop, the first flight of a fixed-wing aircraft in Europe.
Santos-Dumont 14-bis ↗
1959
The Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 (model pictured) struck the Moon, the first spacecraft to reach another celestial body.
Luna 2 ↗
1971
Following a failed coup attempt, Mao Zedong's second-in-command Lin Biao died in a plane crash while attempting to flee China.
Project 571 ↗
1971
Chairman Mao Zedong's second in command and successor Marshal Lin Biao flees China after the failure of an alleged coup. His plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard.
Mao Zedong ↗
Sources and licences
Event text and thumbnails come from Wikipedia and are used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Images are drawn only from Wikimedia Commons, which does not accept non-free content — each thumbnail links to its file page, where its licence and author are recorded.
Launch records are from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. This archive is still being mirrored, so some days are incomplete. Pictures are NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day; NASA imagery is generally not subject to copyright, but individual APOD entries are frequently the property of the photographer, and each caption says which applies.
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Cosmos — Carl Sagan
Still the best single argument for why any of this matters, and it leaves the arithmetic in. For a reader who wants the science, not just the awe.
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Pale Blue Dot — Carl Sagan
The case for leaving Earth, written by someone unsentimental about how hard that is. Suits readers who want the argument rather than the poster.
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Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir
Hard-SF problem solving in The Martian's key — for anyone who liked the engineering more than the peril. The only novel on this list.
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