Dueling Bands in the Night
Explanation:
What are these two bands in the sky?
The more commonly seen band is the one on the right and is the central band of
our Milky Way galaxy.
Our Sun orbits in the disk of this
spiral galaxy, so that from inside, this disk
appears as a band
of comparable brightness all the way around the sky.
The
Milky Way band
can also be seen all year -- if out
away
from
city lights.
The less commonly seem band, on the left, is
zodiacal light --
sunlight reflected from dust orbiting the Sun in our Solar System.
Zodiacal light
is brightest near the Sun and so is best seen just before sunrise or just after sunset.
On some evenings in the north,
particularly during the months of March and April, this ribbon of
zodiacal light
can appear quite prominent after sunset.
It was determined only this century that
zodiacal dust was mostly expelled by comets that have passed
near Jupiter.
Only on certain times of the year will the two bands be seen side by side,
in parts of the sky, like this.
The featured image, including the
Andromeda galaxy and a meteor,
was captured in late January over a frozen lake in
Kanding,
Sichuan,
China.
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.
