APOD
Milky Way Above Easter Island
June 18, 2012Manel Soria
About This Image
Why were the statues on Easter Island built? No one is sure. What is sure is that over 800 large stone statues exist there. The Easter Island statues, stand, on the average, over twice as tall as a person and have over 200 times as much mass. Few specifics are known about the history or meaning of the unusual statues, but many believe that they were created about 500 years ago in the images of local leaders of a lost civilization. Pictured above, some of the stone giants were illuminated in 2009 under the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Help Evaluate APOD: Does viewing APOD make you more interested in science?
On This Day in Space History
On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard STS-7.
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