Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi
(TWAN)
Explanation:
This forest of snow and ice
penitentes
reflects moonlight shinning across the Chajnantor plateau.
The region lies in the Chilean Andes at an altitude of 5,000 meters,
not far from one of planet Earth's major astronomical observatories, the
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array.
Up to several meters high, the flattened, sharp-edged shapes,
and orientation of the penitentes
tend to minimize their shadows at local noon.
In the dry, cold, thin atmosphere, sublimation driven
by sunlight is important for
their formation.
A direct transition from a solid to a gaseous state,
sublimation
shapes other solar system terrains too, like
icy
surfaces of comets and the
polar
caps of Mars.
Above the dreamlike landscape stretches the southern night sky.
Their own forms rooted in myth,
look for
the constellations
Pegasus, Andromeda, and Perseus near the panorama's left edge.
Bright and colorful
stars of Orion the Hunter are near center,
with the Large Magellanic Cloud and the
South Celestial Pole
on the far right.
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 |
Yanvar' Fevral' Mart Aprel' Mai Iyun' Iyul' Avgust Sentyabr' Oktyabr' Noyabr' Dekabr' |
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
|
Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami:
ice - led
Publikacii so slovami: ice - led | |
Sm. takzhe:
Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >> | |
