                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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 October 2

                           A Light and Dusty Night
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Rodrigo Guerra

   Explanation: Posing as a brilliant evening star, Venus lies near the
   western horizon in this southern hemisphere, early spring, night
   skyscape. To create the composite view exposures tracking the sky and
   fixed for the foreground were taken on September 25 from Cascavel in
   southern Brazil. In view after sunset, Venus appears immersed in a cone
   of zodiacal light, sunlight scattered from dust along the Solar
   System's ecliptic plane. In fact from either hemisphere of planet
   Earth, zodiacal light is most visible after sunset near a spring
   equinox, (or before sunrise near an autumn equinox) when its luminous
   arc lies at steep angles to the horizon. Extending above the sunset on
   this night, the zodiacal light reaches toward rich starfields and
   immense interstellar dust clouds in the bulge of the central Milky Way.
   Follow along the Milky Way from the central bulge back toward the
   horizon and you'll spot the closest star system to the Sun, Alpha
   Centauri, a mere 4.37 light-years away.

                  Tomorrow's picture: holographic tea time
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