                        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.

                                2022 June 11

                         The Road and the Milky Way
                    Image Credit & Copyright: David Cruz

   Explanation: At night you can follow this road as it passes through the
   Dark Sky Alqueva reserve not too far from Alentejo, Portugal. Or you
   could stop, look up, and follow the Milky Way through the sky. Both
   stretch from horizon to horizon in this 180 degree panorama recorded on
   June 3. Our galaxy's name, the Milky Way, does refer to its appearance
   as a milky path in the sky. The word galaxy itself derives from the
   Greek for milk. From our fair planet the arc of the Milky Way is most
   easily visible on moonless nights from dark sky areas, though not quite
   so bright or colorful as in this image. The glowing celestial band is
   due to the collective light of myriad stars along the galactic plane
   too faint to be distinguished individually. The diffuse starlight is
   cut by dark swaths of the galaxy's obscuring interstellar dust clouds.
   Standing above the Milky Way arc near the top of this panoramic
   nightscape is bright star Vega, with the galaxy's central bulge near
   the horizon at the right.

                   Tomorrow's picture: pareidolia in space
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

