The Milky Way & Magellanic Cloud: Southern Hemisphere View 'Down Under'

The Milky Way & Magellanic Cloud: Southern Hemisphere View 'Down Under'

Two galaxies are easily visible in this night sky image above Australia—The Milky Way and an irregular dwarf galaxy, called the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), located about 160,000 light years away. Orbiting The Milky Way Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud satellite galaxy is a member of the Local Group. The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes our Milky Way.

Two galaxies are easily visible in this night sky image above Australia—The Milky Way and irregular dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), located about 160,000 light years away. Orbiting The Milky Way Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud satellite galaxy is a member of the Local Group. The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way.

Astrophotographer Mark Wright: "Place to yourself . . . The beach was completely isolated with perfectly clear skies on my last night of camping. I'd been looking for conditions like this for the whole week, and it all came good at the very end. Needless to say I spent the whole night imaging! (and paid the price afterwards)"

From the glowing arc of the Milky Way to dozens of intricate constellations, the unaided human eye should be able to perceive several thousand stars on a clear, dark night. Unfortunately, growing light pollution has robbed about 30% of people around the globe and approximately 80% of people in the United States of the nightly view of their home galaxy. Source: Globe at Night—a citizen science program run by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab.

The Fading Milky Way

Light pollution is a growing environmental problem that threatens to erase the night sky before its time. A recent study revealed that perhaps two-thirds of the world's population can no longer look upwards at night and see the Milky Way—a hazy swath of stars that on warm summer nights spans the sky from horizon to horizon.

The Milky Way is dimming, not because the end of the Universe is near, but rather as a result of light pollution: the inadvertent illumination of the atmosphere from street lights, outdoor advertising, homes, schools, airports and other sources. Every night billions of bulbs send their energy skyward where microscopic bits of matter—air molecules, airborne dust, and water vapor droplets—reflect much of the wasted light back to Earth. 

(Source: NASA)

Learn more:

International Dark-Sky Association

https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution

Globe at Night

https://www.globeatnight.org

Night Sky Network (NASA/JPL)

https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

Tourism Australia: https://www.australia.com

Image Credit: Mark Wright

Mark's website: 

https://www.facebook.com/people/TreeHaus-Nature-Imagery/100058710082643/

Location: Squeaky Beach, Wilsons Promontory, state of Victoria, Australia

Image Date: February 24, 2023

Release Date: July 8, 2023

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