A Road to the Stars
Explanation:
Pictured -- a very scenic road to the stars.
The road approaches
La Silla Observatory in
Chile, with the
ESO's
3.6-meter telescope just up ahead.
To the left are some futuristic-looking
support structures for the planned
BlackGEM telescopes, an array of
optical
telescopes that will help locate optical counterparts to
gravitational waves detections by
LIGO and other detectors.
But there is much more.
Red
airglow illuminates the night sky on the right,
while the
central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy slants across
the image center.
Jupiter can
be seen just above the band near the image center, while
Saturn is visible just above the 3.6-meter telescope dome.
The two largest satellite galaxies of our
Milky Way Galaxy, the
LMC and
SMC,
are seen on the far right.
The featured image panorama was built up from
multiple 15-second exposures that were captured on 2019 June 30.
Two days later,
La Silla experienced a
rare total eclipse of the Sun.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
