        APOD: 2018 March 6 - Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Milky Way

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                 2018 March 6
                                      [2]
                  Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Milky Way
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Xiaohan Wang [3]

Explanation: Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow? Airglow
[4] . Now air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see. A
disturbance however -- like an approaching storm -- may cause noticeable
rippling in the Earth's atmosphere [5] . These gravity waves [6]  are
oscillations in air [7]  analogous to those created when a rock is thrown in
calm water [8] . Red airglow likely originates from OH molecules [9] about
87-kilometers high, excited by ultraviolet light [10]  from the Sun, while
orange and green airglow [11] is likely caused by sodium [12]  and oxygen [13]
 atoms slightly higher up. While driving near Keluke Lake [14]  in Qinghai
Provence [15]  in China [16] , the photographer originally noticed mainly the
impressive central band of the Milky Way Galaxy [17] . Stopping to photograph
it, surprisingly, the resulting sensitive camera image showed airglow bands
[18]  to be quite prominent and span the entire sky. The featured image has
been digitally enhanced to make the colors more vibrant.

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                Tomorrow's picture: arcs, jets, and shocks [23]

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1803/AirglowRings_Wang_3887.jpg
  [3] mailto: wxh1120150427 @at@ gmail .dot. com
  [4] http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/airglow2.htm
  [5]
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/atmosphere-layers2.html
  [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_wave
  [7] http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/hgrav.htm
  [8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9QwiBFN9gI
  [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxyl
  [10] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/10_ultravioletwaves
  [11] http://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/E6728.abstract
  [12] http://periodic.lanl.gov/11.shtml
  [13] http://periodic.lanl.gov/8.shtml
  [14] http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/795907.shtml
  [15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai
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