挪威上空的极光与银河

2023年12月12日

Aurora and Milky Way over Norway
Image 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

Tomorrow’s picture: deep heart

挪威上空的极光与银河
影像提供与版权: Giulio Cobianchi

说明: 天空中这二道庞大的拱形光弧是什么？左侧是我们较熟悉的银河系中央盘面；它是由众多银盘恒星和星云汇集而成，在影像里看似几乎环绕整个南天的光带。银河拱的下方，则有锈红色的火星和弥漫的仙女座星系。然而这个酷寒的极区夜晚另有其他精采之处。在短短的数分钟期间，由极光聚成、伸展在北天的复层拱形光弧，突然出现在影像右侧。很显然的，地球大气高层的极光，远比恒星要邻近。在泛绿的极光拱弧上方，则可见到构成北斗七星的一群恒星。这幅主题影像，组合自2022年11月中旬摄于挪威罗弗敦群岛的20张照片。