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image credit & copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)



captured may last year after sunset on a Chilean autumn night, an exceptional airglow floods this allsky view from Las Campanas Observatory

the airglow was so intense it diminished parts of the Milky Way as it arced horizon to horizon above the high Atacama desert

originating at an altitude similar to aurorae, the luminous airglow is due to chemiluminescence, the production of light through chemical excitation

commonly recorded in color by sensitive digital cameras, the airglow emission here is fiery in appearance

it is predominately from atmospheric oxygen atoms at extremely low densities and has often been present during southern hemisphere nights over the last few years

like the Milky Way, on that dark night the strong airglow was very visible to the eye, but seen without color

Jupiter is the brightest celestial beacon though, standing opposite the Sun and near the central bulge of the Milky Way rising above the eastern (top) horizon

the Large and Small Magellanic clouds both shine through the airglow to the lower left of the galactic plane, toward the southern horizon






































in apod.nasa.gov/apod