Planetary Landscapes

Goodnight, Earthlings! Image Credit & Copyright: Julien Looten. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1526095256220329&set=a.508783484618183

Dueling Bands over the Atacama Desert (APOD: 2026 Jul 06)
Image Credit & Copyright: Julien Looten
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260706.html

Explanation: What are these two bands in the sky? The more commonly seen band is on the left and is the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. Our Sun orbits in the disk of this spiral galaxy so that from inside, it appears as a band of comparable brightness all the way around the sky. The less commonly seen band, on the right, is zodiacal light -- sunlight reflected from dust orbiting the Sun in our Solar System. Zodiacal light is brightest near the Sun and so is best seen just before sunrise or just after sunset. On some evenings, this ribbon of zodiacal light can appear quite prominent. It was discovered only in this century that zodiacal dust was mostly expelled by comets that have passed near Jupiter. The featured image was captured about a year ago from the Atacama Desert in Chile.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/julienlooten/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=260706

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured this landmark image of Betelgeuse, providing the highest-resolution view ever of a star outside our solar system. The image shows the star's non-uniform sphere, with an asymmetrical and extended atmosphere revealing clues about its final stages of life. Betelgeuse is located 642.5 light-years away from Earth. Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/E. O'Gorman/P. Kervella_