Sometimes, if you are lucky, dawn comes before the dawn. The zodiacal light – or false dawn, as it is sometimes called – is an ethereal light extending up from the horizon, sometimes seen about an hour before sunrise or an hour after sunset. At one time, it was thought this was an atmospheric phenomenon, but it’s more cosmic than that! Zodiacal light is sunlight reflecting off dust grains in space. These dust grains are likely left over from the same process that created Earth and the other planets of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
Alan Dyer captured this beautiful view of the zodiacal light on a recent trip to New Mexico. If you look closely you can see some other cosmic phenomena as well: “Mars is above centre and Saturn is just rising over the mountain ridge,” Alan wrote on Flickr. “Comet Lovejoy C/2013 R1 is at far left. The image includes the position (left of centre, above the mountains left of the Zodiacal Light) where Comet ISON (C/2012 S2) would have been had it survived passage around the Sun.”
See more of Alan’s great work at his Flickr page or his website, Amazing Sky Photography.
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
Astrobiologists continue to work towards determining which biosignatures might be best to look for when…
Planetary nebula are some of nature's most stunning visual displays. The name is confusing since…
The venerable Hubble Space Telescope is like a gift that keeps on giving. Not only…
The venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft is finally phoning home again. This is much to the…
The search for extrasolar planets is currently undergoing a seismic shift. With the deployment of…
Astronauts on board the International Space Station are often visited by supply ships from Earth…