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Sparing a moment in time for the stars above
Earth Hour 2021
By Dan Hicks
Lead image: An Atacama Milky Way. A composite southern hemisphere panorama of the Milky Way distorts its straight form into the classic MW arch, seen over the Paranal Observatory complex, looking north; Atacama Desert, Chile, Yuri Beletsky, European Southern Observatory intergovernmental research organization (Wikipedia), 2007 (released 2020). Also visible are the two Magellanic Clouds (centre, above horizon), and the prominent constellation Orion rising (on the right). The pervasive radiant green and red light is airglow, caused by the high atmospheric chemiluminescence of solar irradiated air molecules (the green light is emitted from 100 km up and the red light from 150 to 300 km), a nocturnal luminescence visible only from the darkest locales. Image Submitted
