Credit & Copyright: Dave Lane;
Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt
Explanation:
Why would the sky look like a giant fan?
Airglow.
The featured intermittent
green glow
appeared to rise from a lake through the arch of our
Milky Way Galaxy,
as captured last summer next to
Bryce Canyon in
Utah, USA.
The unusual
pattern was created by atmospheric
gravity waves, ripples of alternating air pressure that can grow with height
as the air thins,
in this case about
90 kilometers
up.
Unlike auroras powered by collisions with
energetic charged particles and seen at high latitudes, airglow is due to
chemiluminescence, the
production of light in a chemical reaction.
More typically seen near the horizon,
airglow keeps the night sky from
ever being completely dark.
Follow APOD on:
Facebook,
Google Plus,
or
Twitter
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:
atmosfernye yavleniya
Publikacii so slovami: atmosfernye yavleniya | |
Sm. takzhe:
Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >> | |
