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Credit & Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham
Explanation:
Can the night sky appear both serene and surreal?
Perhaps classifiable as serene in the
above panoramic image taken
last Friday are the faint lights of small towns glowing
across a dark foreground landscape of
Doi Inthanon National Park in
Thailand, as well as the
numerous stars glowing across a dark background starscape.
Also visible are the planet Venus and a band of
zodiacal light on the image left.
Unusual events are also captured, however.
First, the
central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy, while usually a
common site, appears here to hover
surreally
above the ground.
Next, a fortuitous streak of a meteor was captured on the image right.
Perhaps the most unusual component is the bright spot just to the left of the meteor.
That spot is the plume of a rising Ariane 5 rocket,
launched a few minutes before from
Kourou,
French Guiana.
How lucky was the astrophotographer to capture the
rocket launch in his image?
Not lucky at all -- the image was
timed to
capture the rocket.
What was lucky was how photogenic -- and perhaps
surreal -- the rest of the sky turned out to be.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: rocket - meteor
Publications with words: rocket - meteor
See also: