¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 January 3 [2]See Explanation. Moving the cursor over the image will bring up an annotated version. Clicking on the image will bring up the highest resolution version available. A Phoenix Aurora over Iceland Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Hallgrimur P. Helgason; Rollover Annotation: [4]Judy Schmidt Explanation: All of the other aurora watchers had gone home. By 3:30 am in [5]Iceland, on a quiet September night, much of that night's auroras had died down. Suddenly, unexpectedly, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the [6]Earth's atmosphere once again. This time, surprisingly, [7]pareidoliacally, the night lit up with an [8]amazing [9]shape reminiscent of a giant [10]phoenix. With camera equipment at the ready, two quick sky images were taken, followed immediately by a third of the land. The mountain in the background is [11]Helgafell, while the small foreground river is called Kaldá, both located about 30 kilometers north of Iceland's capital [12]Reykjavík. [13]Seasoned skywatchers will note that just above the mountain, toward the left, is the [14]constellation of Orion, while the [15]Pleiades [16]star cluster is also visible just above the frame center. The 2016 [17]aurora, which lasted only a minute and was soon gone forever -- would possibly be dismissed as an [18]fanciful fable -- were it not captured in the [19]featured, digitally-composed, image mosaic. Almost Hyperspace: [20]Random APOD Generator Tomorrow's picture: lightening up __________________________________________________________________ [21]< | [22]Archive | [23]Submissions | [24]Index | [25]Search | [26]Calendar | [27]RSS | [28]Education | [29]About APOD | [30]Discuss | [31]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [32]Robert Nemiroff ([33]MTU) & [34]Jerry Bonnell ([35]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [36]Specific rights apply. [37]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [38]ASD at [39]NASA / [40]GSFC & [41]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2101/PhoenixAurora_Helgason_3130.jpg 3. https://www.facebook.com/Icelandic.Photos 4. http://geckzilla.com/ 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland 6. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/atmosphere-layers2.html 7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140429.html 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121003.html 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(mythology) 11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BuhpUn0LsE 12. https://youtu.be/-5exa7svE5Y 13. https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7071/7180595308_f6ba60d0b8_b.jpg 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101117.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140225.html 16. http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=18009 17. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/aurora/en/ 18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_tale 19. https://www.facebook.com/Icelandic.Photos/photos/pb.1859684057503918.-2207520000.1458064624./2130278890444432/ 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/random_apod.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210102.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 25. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 30. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210103 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210104.html 32. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 34. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 35. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 37. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 38. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 39. https://www.nasa.gov/ 40. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 41. http://www.mtu.edu/