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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.

Heaven on Earth

Explanation: If sometimes it appears that the entire Milky Way Galaxy is raining down on your head, do not despair. It happens twice a day. As the Sun rises in the East, wonders of the night sky become less bright than the sunlight scattered by our own Earth's atmosphere , and so fade from view. They will only rotate back into view when the Earth again eclipses our bright Sun at dusk . This battle between heaven and Earth was captured dramatically above during the last few minutes of daylight on 1999 August 10 in Koumi , Japan . Dark dust , millions of stars , and bright glowing red gas highlight the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy , which lies on average thousands of light years behind Earth 's yellow and green reflecting clouds .

Date November 6, 2000
Credit Credit & Copyright: Naoyuki Kurita
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.