Suggested Searches

APOD

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.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Zodiacal Light

Explanation: Sometimes the sky itself seems to glow. Usually, this means you are seeing a cloud reflecting sunlight or moonlight. If the glow appears as a faint band of light running across the whole sky , you are probably seeing the combined light from the billions of stars that compose our Milky Way Galaxy . But if the glow appears triangular and near the horizon , you might be seeing something called zodiacal light . Pictured above , zodiacal light is just sunlight reflected by tiny dust particles orbiting in our Solar System . Many of these particles were ejected by comets . Zodiacal light is easiest to see in September and October just before sunrise from a very dark location.

Date June 13, 1999
Credit Credit & Copyright: D. Malin (AAO), AATB
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.