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Credit & Copyright: Vincent Brady
Explanation:
What's happened to the sky?
A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too.
The time warp occurs because
this image
captured in a single frame a two and a half hour
exposure
of the night sky.
As a result, prominent
star trails are visible.
The space warp occurs because the picture is actually a full
360 degree panorama, horizontally
compressed to fit your browser.
As the Earth rotated,
stars appeared to
circle both the North
Celestial Pole,
on the left, and the
South Celestial Pole,
just below the horizon on the right.
The above panorama over
Arches National Park
in
Utah,
USA,
was captured two weeks ago during early morning hours.
While the eye-catching texture of ancient layered
sandstone covers the image foreground, twenty-meter tall
Delicate Arch
is visible on the far right, and the distant arch of our
Milky Way Galaxy is visible near the image center.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day