Sky Aglow at CTIO

The glowing light suffusing the night sky in this photograph is due to two fascinating effects — zodiacal light and airglow. The first effect, zodiacal light, is due to sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust in our Solar System, and causes the dim white vertical gleam dominating the left hand side of this image. Airglow, on the other hand, originates in Earth’s own atmosphere. It is visible as bands of colored light along the horizon to the right of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab.