                        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 September 28

                       A Furious Sky over Mount Shasta
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner

   Explanation: Is the sky angry with Mount Shasta? According to some
   ancient legends, the spirits of above and below worlds fight there,
   sometimes quite actively during eruptions of this enormous volcano in
   California, USA. Such drama can well be imagined in this deep sky image
   taken in late June. Evident above the snow-covered peak is the central
   band of our Milky Way Galaxy, on the left, and a picturesque sky toward
   the modern constellations of Scorpius and Ophiuchus, above and to the
   right. The bright orange star Antares and the colorful rho Ophiuchi
   cloud complex are visible just to the right of Mount Shasta, while the
   red emission nebula surrounding the star zeta Ophiuchi appears on the
   top right. The static earth image in the featured composite was taken
   during the blue hour, while a two-panel panorama tracking the
   background sky was taken later that night with the same camera and from
   the same location. Within a few million years, Antares, some stars in
   the rho Ophiuchi system, and zeta Ophiuchi will all likely explode as
   supernovas.

                     Tomorrow's picture: asteroid safety
     __________________________________________________________________

       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,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

