Milky Way with Airglow Australis
Explanation:
Captured last April
after sunset on a Chilean winter's night
an exceptionally intense airglow flooded this scene.
The panoramic skyscape is also filled with
stars, clusters, and nebulae along the southern Milky Way
including the Large and Small Magellanic clouds.
Originating at an altitude similar to aurorae,
the luminous airglow is
due
to chemiluminescence, the
production of light through chemical excitation.
Commonly recorded with a greenish tinge by sensitive
digital cameras, both red and green airglow emission here
is predominately
from atmospheric
oxygen atoms at extremely low densities and has often been present in
southern hemisphere nights during the last few years.
Like the
Milky Way
on that dark night the strong airglow was visible
to the eye, but seen without color.
Mars, Saturn, and bright star Antares in Scorpius
form the celestial triangle anchoring the scene on the left.
The road leads toward the 2,600 meter high mountain Cerro Paranal and
the European Southern Observatory's
Very Large
Telescopes.
Participate: Take an
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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.
