Zodiacal Light before Dawn
Explanation:
You might not guess it, but sunrise was still hours away when
this nightscape was taken,
a view along the eastern horizon from a remote location in Chile's
Atacama
desert.
Stretching high into the otherwise dark, starry sky
the unusually bright conical glow is sunlight though,
scattered by dust along the solar system's
ecliptic
plane .
Known as
Zodiacal
light, the apparition is also nicknamed the "false dawn".
Near center, bright star Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster seem
immersed in the Zodiacal light, with Orion toward the right
edge
of the frame.
Reddish emission from NGC 1499, the California Nebula,
can also be seen through the tinge of airglow along the horizon.
Sliding your cursor over the picture
(or
following this link)
will label the sky over this future site of the
Giant Magellan Telescope
at Las Campanas Observatory.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.