Milky Way over a Turquoise Wonderland

Explanation: What glows there? The answer depends: sea or sky? In the sea, the unusual blue glow is bioluminescence . Specifically, the glimmer arises from Noctiluca scintillans , single-celled plankton stimulated by the lapping waves. The plankton use their glow to startle and illuminate predators. This mid-February display on an island in the Maldives was so intense that the astrophotographer described it as a turquoise wonderland . In the sky, by contrast, are the more familiar glows of stars and nebula s. The white band rising from the artificially-illuminated green plants is created by billions of stars in the central disk of our Milky Way Galaxy . Also visible in the sky is the star cluster Omega Centauri , toward the left, and the famous Southern Cross asterism in the center. Red-glowing nebulas include the bright Carina Nebula , just right of center, and the expansive Gum Nebula on the upper right.