                        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.

                                 2026 July 6
    A distant person stands on a rocky landscape. Above is a starry sky.
     Rising up from the horizon on either side of the person are bright
        arching spires. Please see the explanation for more detailed
                                information.

                    Dueling Bands over the Atacama Desert
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Julien Looten

   Explanation: What are these two bands in the sky? The more commonly
   seen band is on the left and is the central band of our Milky Way
   galaxy. Our Sun orbits in the disk of this spiral galaxy so that from
   inside, it appears as a band of comparable brightness all the way
   around the sky. The less commonly seen band, on the right, is zodiacal
   light -- sunlight reflected from dust orbiting the Sun in our Solar
   System. Zodiacal light is brightest near the Sun and so is best seen
   just before sunrise or just after sunset. On some evenings, this ribbon
   of zodiacal light can appear quite prominent. It was discovered only in
   this century that zodiacal dust was mostly expelled by comets that have
   passed near Jupiter. The featured image was captured about a year ago
   from the Atacama Desert in Chile.

                  Tomorrow's picture: dueling space dragons
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

