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 22 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. The Milky Ring Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Alvin Wu Explanation: An expanse of cosmic dust, stars and nebulae along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy form a beautiful ring in [5]this projected all-sky view. The creative panorama covers the entire [6]galaxy visible from planet Earth, an ambitious 360 degree mosaic that took two years to complete. Northern hemisphere sites in western China and southern hemisphere sites in New Zealand were used [7]to collect the image data. Like a glowing jewel set in the milky ring, the bulge of the [8]galactic center, is at the very top. Bright planet Jupiter is the beacon just above the central bulge and left of red giant star [9]Antares. Along the plane and almost 180 degrees from the galactic center, at the bottom of the ring is the area [10]around Orion, denizen of the northern hemisphere's evening winter skies. In this projection the ring of the Milky Way encompasses two notable galaxies in southern skies, the large and small [11]Magellanic clouds. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [12]< | [13]Archive | [14]Submissions | [15]Index | [16]Search | [17]Calendar | [18]RSS | [19]Education | [20]About APOD | [21]Discuss | [22]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [23]Robert Nemiroff ([24]MTU) & [25]Jerry Bonnell ([26]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [27]Specific rights apply. [28]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [29]ASD at [30]NASA / [31]GSFC & [32]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2101/MilkyWayRingAlvinWu.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.instagram.com/alvinwufoto/ 5. https://www.instagram.com/p/CKRCvdhpBxH/?igshid=1nk6qdc78twez 6. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180427.html 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110730.html 8. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/a-new-galactic-center-adventure-in-virtual-reality.html 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200516.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161204.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210101.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210121.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 16. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 21. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210122 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210123.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 25. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 26. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 28. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 29. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 32. http://www.mtu.edu/