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Credit & Copyright: Ruslan Merzlyakov
(RMS Photography)
Explanation:
What's that strange light down the road?
Dust orbiting the Sun.
At certain times of the year, a band of sun-reflecting dust from the inner
Solar System appears prominently just after sunset -- or just before sunrise
-- and is called
zodiacal light.
Although the origin of this dust is still being researched,
a leading hypothesis holds that zodiacal dust originates mostly from faint
Jupiter-family
comets and slowly spirals into the
Sun.
Recent analysis of
dust emitted by Comet 67P,
visited by ESA's robotic
Rosetta spacecraft, bolster this hypothesis.
Pictured when climbing a road up to
Teide National Park in the
Canary Islands of
Spain,
a bright triangle of
zodiacal light
appeared in the distance soon after sunset.
Captured on June 21, the scene includes bright Regulus, alpha star of
Leo, standing above center toward the left.
The Beehive Star Cluster (M44) can be spotted below center, closer to the
horizon and also immersed in the zodiacal glow.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day