                        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 August 16
    A landscape image shows a starfield above a lake. Part of the lake is
   evaporating into the sky on the right. The arch of the Milky Way Galaxy
   curves overhead. It may look like the evaporation is creating the Milky
       Way. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                         Milky Way over Yellowstone
                     Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Lane

   Explanation: The Milky Way was not created by an evaporating lake. The
   colorful pool of water, about 10 meters across, is known as Silex
   Spring and is located in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA.
   Illuminated artificially, the colors are caused by layers of bacteria
   that grow in the hot spring. Steam rises off the spring, heated by
   underground magma associated with the Yellowstone Hotspot. Unrelated
   and far in the distance, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy
   arches high overhead, a band lit by billions of stars. The picture
   features a 16-image panorama taken in 2014. If the Yellowstone Hotspot
   causes another supervolcanic eruption as it did about 640,000 years
   ago, a large part of North America would be affected.

                      Tomorrow's picture: eclipse gold
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

