Night-Shining Clouds
Noctilucent or polar mesospheric clouds, form at very high altitudes—between 80 and 85 kilometers (50–53 miles)—which positions them to reflect light long after the Sun has dropped below the horizon. Photograph Jan Erik Paulsen
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Hovering on the Horizon
The limb of the Earth is a work of awesome beauty and a gift to science. When observed from space, the palette of gaseous layers of atmosphere reminds us of the fragility and tenuousness of the cocoon that shelters life from cold, harsh space.
La Silla Star Trails North and South
Fix your camera to a tripod and you can record graceful trails traced by the stars as planet Earth rotates on its axis. If the tripod is set up at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, high in the Atacama desert of Chile, your star trails would look something like this. Photographer: Alexandre Santerne
Sunrise at Oceanside Beach
The photo above showing a splendid summer sunrise was captured at Oceanside Beach, Bellarine Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia. Photographer Phil Thomson; Phil’s Website
Meteorite Fireball over Cusco Peru
This amazing video shows the moment a suspected meteor streaked across the sky over the city of Cusco in Peru. It was captured blasting through the upper levels of the atmosphere, leaving an iridescent trail in its wake.
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Breath-taking snaps of Milky Way
With just an ordinary digital camera, Alex Cherney turned thousands of snaps into an incredible time-lapse video of the cosmos.
Mammatus Clouds, Newland
Severe thunderstorms rolled through western North Carolina on the evening of June 7, 2011. Though we were spared the worst of the wind and rain, ominous looking mammatus clouds glared down at storm’s end. Photographer Rich Bruner
Sunsets Skylines
These opposing skylines, one a solid silhouette the other vaporous but vividly hued, were observed from the balcony of my home in Turin, Italy on January 13, 2011. Photographer: Piero Armando
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Civil twilight over Salt Lake
The photo above shows an eye-catching twilight sky over Salt Lake, Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. Salt Lake is one of several salt lakes scattered in Egypt’s Western Desert. Photographer: Aymen Ibrahem
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