|
Credit & Copyright: Chunlin Liu
Explanation:
The image was timed to capture a total lunar eclipse -- but it came with quite a twist.
First,
the eclipse: the fully Earth-shadowed Moon is visible as the
orange orb near the top.
The eclipsed Moon's
orange color is caused by a slight amount of
red light scattered first by
Earth's atmosphere, adding a color like a
setting Sun.
Now, the twist: one of the apparent double helix bands is the
Milky Way, the central disk of our home galaxy.
The second band is
zodiacal light, sunlight
scattered by dust in our
Solar System.
The reason they cross is because the
plane where dust orbits our Sun is tilted relative to the
plane where stars orbit our Galaxy.
This well-known tilt is
shown dramatically in the featured wide-angle
Mercator-projected picture,
spanning from
horizon to horizon,
captured in early September from
Mingantu Observing Station in
Inner Mongolia,
China.á
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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: lunar eclipse - Milky Way - zodiacal light
Publications with words: lunar eclipse - Milky Way - zodiacal light
See also:
- APOD: 2025 September 11 Á The Umbra of Earth
- APOD: 2025 July 2 Á Milky Way Through Otago Spires
- APOD: 2025 May 20 Á Milky Way over Maunakea
- APOD: 2025 May 13 Á Gaia Reconstructs a Top View of our Galaxy
- APOD: 2025 May 12 Á Gaia Reconstructs a Side View of our Galaxy
- APOD: 2025 March 25 Á A Blue Banded Blood Moon
- Galaxies in Space