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APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:06 am
by APOD Robot
Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Milky Way
Explanation: Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow?
Airglow. Now air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see. A disturbance however -- like an approaching storm -- may cause noticeable rippling in the
Earth's atmosphere. These
gravity waves are
oscillations in air analogous to those created when a
rock is thrown in calm water. Red airglow likely originates from
OH molecules about 87-kilometers high, excited by
ultraviolet light from the Sun, while orange and green
airglow is likely caused by
sodium and
oxygen atoms slightly higher up. While driving near
Keluke Lake in
Qinghai Provence in
China, the photographer originally noticed mainly the impressive central band of the
Milky Way Galaxy. Stopping to photograph it, surprisingly, the resulting sensitive camera image showed
airglow bands to be quite prominent and span the entire sky. The featured image has been digitally enhanced to make the colors more vibrant.
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:36 am
by BDanielMayfield
Extraordinary, stunning image. Wow.
There also appears to be some purple airglow as well. Is it's sorce known?
Bruce
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 6:20 am
by Ed Casebier
Gorgeous backdrop from China of a 2017 Buick Envision.
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:25 am
by Rodrigo Camargo
Nice picture. Anyone can see M31 and M33!!!
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:56 pm
by neufer
BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:36 am
There also appears to be some purple airglow as well. Is it's source known?
Based on the spectrum from:
https://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/airglow2.htm most of
the colors would come from oxygen atoms (with only deep red coming from hydroxyl molecules).
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:27 pm
by orin stepanek
Beautiful; worthy of being a wallpaper!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 4:36 pm
by Zuben L. Genubi
Can someone please explain the part about storms causing gravity waves? I thought gravity waves were only recently proven to exist.
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 4:50 pm
by neufer
Zuben L. Genubi wrote: ↑Tue Mar 06, 2018 4:36 pm
Can someone please explain the part about storms causing gravity waves?
I thought gravity waves were only recently proven to exist.
Gravitational waves (i.e., propagating ripples in spacetime) were only recently observed to exist.
Gravity waves (i.e., propagating disturbances in a fluid caused primarily by gravitational restoring forces)
have been known since humans first observed ocean waves.
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:56 pm
by ta152h0
So giant Black Holes eat dark matter to get so big so fast ? Getting schooled here big time. Back to admiring today's APOD and having a cup of brew !
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 12:59 am
by empty_space
ta152h0 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:56 pm
So giant Black Holes eat dark matter to get so big so fast ? Getting schooled here big time. Back to admiring today's APOD and having a cup of brew !
A brew and the wonders from APOD is the true meaning of life!
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Re: APOD: Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Way... (2018 Mar 06)
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 6:35 am
by BDanielMayfield
Thanks Art. That reference was helpful. From it it appears that the purple color is coming from O
2 molecules.
Bruce