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Credit & Copyright: Giulio Cobianchi
Explanation:
What are these two giant arches across the sky?
Perhaps the more familiar one, on the left, is the central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy.
This grand disk of stars and nebulas here appears to encircle much of the southern
sky.
Visible below the stellar arch is the
rusty-orange planet
Mars and the extended
Andromeda galaxy.
But this night had more!
For a few minutes during this
cold
arctic night, a second
giant arch appeared
encircling part of the northern sky: an
aurora.
Auroras are much closer than stars as they are composed of glowing air high in
Earth's atmosphere.
Visible outside the
green auroral arch is the group of stars popularly
known as the
Big Dipper.
The featured digital composite of 20 images was captured in
mid-November 2022 over the
Lofoten Islands in
Norway.
APOD Year in Review (2023):
RJN's Night Sky Network Lecture
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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
Publications with keywords: Milky Way - aurora
Publications with words: Milky Way - aurora
See also:
- Aurora Australis and the International Space Station
- APOD: 2024 August 4 Á Gaia: Here Comes the Sun
- APOD: 2024 July 29 Á Milky Way over Uluru
- APOD: 2024 June 26 Á Timelapse: Aurora, SAR, and the Milky Way
- APOD: 2024 June 12 Á Aurora over Karkonosze Mountains
- APOD: 2024 May 29 Á Stairway to the Milky Way
- APOD: 2024 May 20 Á Aurora Dome Sky