EarthSky News - Nov 28 - Night-Shining Clouds Over Antarctica

November 28 Night-Shining Clouds Over Antarctica by:

Night-shining clouds over Antarctica The AIM spacecraft has spotted noctilucent clouds - aka night-shining clouds - above Earth's southernmost continent. The season for them started early this year! IAU formally approves 227 star names   The International Astronomical Union - which has given itself responsibility to name and define things in space - has now joined the rest of us in recognizing traditional star names. How long to orbit Milky Way's center? One journey of our sun and planets around the center of our Milky Way galaxy is sometimes called a cosmic year. That's approximately 225-250 million Earth-years. Can we see stars outside our Milky Way? When we look up or down - away from the flat disk of the galaxy or toward it - we're seeing Milky Way stars. But we also see a few more distant objects, visible to the eye alone.

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TONIGHT Can we see stars outside our Milky Way? The central bulge of our Milky Way galaxy shines brightly above an ocean of lights of Yaqing Temple, in the Sichuan province of China. Photo by Jeff Dai. Read more about this image.

Today's Image Night-shining clouds over Antarctica A ring of bright noctilucent clouds – sometimes called "night-shining" clouds – has formed around the South Pole. Image taken November 24, 2016 by the AIM spacecraft. Submit your photo to EarthSky here!

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