                        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.

                              2023 December 23

                           A December Summer Night
            Image Credit & Copyright: Ian Griffin (Otago Museum)

   Explanation: Colours of a serene evening sky are captured in this 8
   minute exposure, made near this December's solstice from New Zealand,
   southern hemisphere, planet Earth. Looking south, star trails form the
   short concentric arcs around the rotating planet's south celestial pole
   positioned just off the top of the frame. At top and left of center are
   trails of the Southern Cross stars and a dark smudge from the Milky
   Way's Coalsack Nebula. Alpha and Beta Centauri make the brighter yellow
   and blue tinted trails, reflected below in the waters of Hoopers Inlet
   in the Pacific coast of the South Island's Otago Peninsula. On that
   short December summer night, aurora australis also gave luminous, green
   and reddish hues to the sky above the hills. An upper atmospheric glow
   distinct from the aurora excited by collisions with energetic
   particles, pale greenish bands of airglow caused by a cascade of
   chemical reactions excited by sunlight can be traced in diagonal bands
   near the top left.

                     Tomorrow's picture: a cosmic cocoon
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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