A starry sky is shown with the busy central band of our Milky Way Galaxy showing rising diagonally from the lower right. In the foreground are flat grasslands leading up to a huge orange rock mound named Uluru. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
图中显示的是一片星空，银河系繁华的中央盘面从右下方斜向升起。前景是平坦的草原，通向一座巨大的橙色岩石丘，名为乌鲁鲁。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
The featured image shows a dark nebula complex involving thick dust appearing brown and making a big “V”. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
特色图片展示了一个由浓密的尘埃组成的黑暗星云复合体，呈现出棕色，形成一个大的“V”形。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
The band of the Milky Way runs across a night sky filled with stars. Colorful clouds are on the right horizon. A strange rock structure appears in the image center with a base and an extended arm that seems to point to the colorful horizon. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
银河系盘面横跨繁星点点的夜空。右侧地平线上布满了彩云。图像中心出现了一个奇怪的岩石结构，其底部和延伸的臂状物似乎指向色彩斑斓的地平线。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
请参阅说明。单击图片将下载可用的最高分辨率版本。
See Explanation. Clicking on the video will download the highest resolution version available.
请参阅说明。单击视频将下载可用的最高分辨率版本。
星光闪烁的天空显示出银河系中央带的拱形横跨图片顶部。前景是一片岩石景观，前方有一座小山，还有一条通往山上楼梯的小路。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
请参阅说明。单击图片将下载可用的最高分辨率版本。
2024年1月18日 Northern Lights from the Stratosphere Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner Explanation: Northern lights shine in this night skyview from planet Earth’s stratosphere, captured on January 15. The single, 5 second exposure was made with a hand-held camera on board an aircraft above Winnipeg, Canada. During the exposure, terrestrial lights below leave colorful trails along the direction of motion of the speeding aircraft. Above the more distant horizon, energetic particles accelerated along Earth’s magnetic field at the planet’s polar regions excite atomic oxygen to create the shimmering display of Aurora Borealis. The aurora’s characteristic greenish hue is generated at altitudes of 100-300 kilometers and red at even higher altitudes and lower atmospheric densities. The luminous glow of faint stars along the plane of our…
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…
2023年12月1日 Milky Way Rising Image Credit & Copyright: José Rodrigues Explanation: The core of the Milky Way is rising beyond the Chilean mountain-top La Silla Observatory in this deep night skyscape. Seen toward the constellation Sagittarius, our home galaxy’s center is flanked on the left, by the European Southern Observatory’s New Technology Telescope which pioneered the use of active optics to accurately control the shape of large telescope mirrors. To the right stands the ESO 3.6-meter Telescope, home of the exoplanet hunting HARPS and NIRPS spectrographs. Between them, the galaxy’s central bulge is filled with obscuring clouds of interstellar dust, bright stars, clusters, and nebulae. Prominent reddish hydrogen emission from the star-forming Lagoon Nebula, M8, is near center. The Trifid Nebula, M20, combines blue light…
