Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2020 January 29

                         Milky Way over Yellowstone
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Lori Jacobs

   Explanation: The Milky Way was not created by an evaporating lake. The
   pool of vivid blue water, about 10 meters across, is known as Silex
   Spring and is located in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA.
   Steam rises off the spring, heated by a magma chamber deep underneath
   known as the Yellowstone hotspot. The steam blurs the image of Venus,
   making it seem unusually large. Unrelated and far in the distance, the
   central band of our Milky Way Galaxy rises high overhead, a band lit by
   billions of stars. The featured picture is a 3-image panorama taken
   last August. If the Yellowstone hotspot causes another supervolcanic
   eruption as it did 640,000 years ago, a large part of North America
   would be affected.

                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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