There are so many things to love about astronomy, but one of my favorites is when science and beauty merge and become one. The beauty is what first captures your attention, and the science is what makes you look closer and stay enraptured.
May
There are so many things to love about astronomy, but one of my favorites is when science and beauty merge and become one. The beauty is what first captures your attention, and the science is what makes you look closer and stay enraptured.
May I present to you my evidence: Venus rising into a beam of zodiacal light:
This photo was taken by astrophotographer Rudi Dobesberger, who has dozens upon dozens of similarly stunning pictures on his site (and more jaw-droppers on 500px). He took this photo on Nov. 16, 2012, in the early morning at Kalkalpen National Park in Austria. The sky was very dark; the glow on the left is Vienna (which was 150 km (90 miles) away), and Graz on the right (110 km/70 miles distant). Fog blankets lights from the town in the foreground, further damping light pollution.
Which was a wonderful happenstance, because it allowed the normally-invisible light of zodiacal light to shine through. This glow is due to sunlight reflected by dust shed by countless comets over the eons. These comets all had short-period orbits, most taking only 20 years or less to circle the Sun. Over time, it’s inevitable that such comets would have their orbits heavily influenced by the massive presence of Jupiter