October 18, 2013
Somewhere above you, light is arriving from places so distant their names feel like poetry.
Venus, Zodiacal Light, and the Galactic Center
Birthday · October 18, 2013
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published October 18, 2013. Credit: Juergen Schmoll. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
The bulging center of our Milky Way Galaxy rests on a pillar of light in this luminous skyscape. Recorded on September 22nd in dark South African skies, rivers of dust seem to flow downward from the galactic center towards Antares, yellowish alpha star of the constellation Scorpius, near the top of the scene. The brightest celestial beacon present is not a star at all though, but planet Venus, still dominant in the western sky after sunset. Of course, the pillar of light stretching upward from the horizon is Zodiacal light. Sunlight scattered by dust along the plane of the ecliptic creates the zodiacal glow, prominent in the evening after twilight during the southern hemisphere spring.
Image credit: Juergen Schmoll