﻿ 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. 2023 December 12 [2]A night sky filled with stars is shown behind a picturesque foreground. The foreground contains rounded rocks and a person before a distant sea. The background contains bands of the Milky Way and bright aurora. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. Aurora and Milky Way over Norway Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Giulio Cobianchi Explanation: What are these two giant arches across the sky? Perhaps the more familiar one, on the left, is the central band of our [4]Milky Way Galaxy. This grand disk of stars and nebulas here appears to encircle much of the southern sky. Visible below the stellar arch is the [5]rusty-orange planet [6]Mars and the extended [7]Andromeda galaxy. But this night had more! For a few minutes during this [8]cold arctic night, a second [9]giant arch appeared encircling part of the northern sky: an [10]aurora. Auroras are much closer than stars as they are composed of glowing air high in [11]Earth's atmosphere. Visible outside the [12]green auroral arch is the group of stars popularly [13]known as the [14]Big Dipper. The [15]featured digital composite of 20 images was captured in mid-November 2022 over the [16]Lofoten Islands in [17]Norway. APOD Year in Review (2023): [18]RJN's Night Sky Network Lecture Tomorrow's picture: deep heart __________________________________________________________________ [19]< | [20]Archive | [21]Submissions | [22]Index | [23]Search | [24]Calendar | [25]RSS | [26]Education | [27]About APOD | [28]Discuss | [29]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [30]Robert Nemiroff ([31]MTU) & [32]Jerry Bonnell ([33]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [34]Specific rights apply. [35]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [36]ASD at [37]NASA / [38]GSFC, [39]NASA Science Activation & [40]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2312/ArcticNight_Cobianchi_2048.jpg 3. https://giuliocobianchi.com/about/ 4. https://science.nasa.gov/resource/the-milky-way-galaxy/ 5. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970804.html 6. https://science.nasa.gov/mars/ 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150830.html 8. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKSyMr2UEAAUL70?format=jpg 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200531.html 10. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/aurora/en/ 11. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/atmosphere-layers2.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190322.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210112.html 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dipper 15. https://www.instagram.com/p/C0OjdSZI8kS/ 16. https://youtu.be/mg67iIFivDo 17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway 18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S00SNpSNKZo 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231211.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 23. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 25. https://apod.com/feed.rss 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 28. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=231212 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231213.html 30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 31. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 32. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 33. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 35. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 36. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 37. https://www.nasa.gov/ 38. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 39. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 40. http://www.mtu.edu/