While the stars, galaxies, and Milky Way are familiar sights in the night sky, they are joined here by the faint zodiacal light that arises from light (mostly direct sunlight) reflecting off of Solar System dust particles. Profusely present in the inner Solar System, zodiacal dust is fundamentally limiting when we collect faint observations of the distant Universe. (Credit:
ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org))

Remember why we look up

Looking up at the night sky gives us a glimpse of the Universe beyond our terrestrial concerns. Here’s what’s out there.

The night sky, familiar to all of us, holds a sense of wonder unlike anything else.

The Milky Way, as seen at La Silla observatory, is a stunning, awe-inspiring sight to anyone, and offers a spectacular view of a great many stars in our galaxy. Although there are definitely regions, like towards our galactic center, that are denser in stars than others, the average “square degree” on the sky contains ~10 million stars from the Milky Way. (Credit: ESO/Håkon Dahle)

For countless generations, we’ve gazed upon the heavenly abyss with awe.

The effects of light pollution on what a naked-eye observer can see in the night sky. The artificial light produced by objects on the ground can wash out the naturally occurring objects in the night sky, rendering many objects unable to be seen. Light pollution can wash out all but the brightest meteors during a meteor shower. (Credit: Stellarium Labs)

Today, light pollution and satellite contamination have stolen those pristine views from many of us.

This image of Venus and the Pleiades shows the tracks of Starlink satellites. The reflective surfaces of the satellites, coupled with the fact that they are orbiting around Earth, mean that astronomical observations that require very long exposures capture “tracks” of the satellites in their images. (Credit: T. Hansen/IAU OAE/Creative Commons Attribution)

Even so, each glimpse of what lies beyond Earth compels us to look farther.

This spectacular composite image, which combines X-ray, infrared, and optical light from NASA’s great observatories, was our best view of what’s going on in the galactic center as of 2009. Over the past ~13 years, however, we’ve taken data that has revealed novel features that, at present, have yet to be fully explained. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/CXC/STScI)

Out there, among the stars, galaxies, and beyond, lies the answers to the greatest mysteries of all.