Milky Way over Deadvlei in Namibia
Image Credit & Copyright:
Stefan Liebermann
What planet is this?
It is the only planet currently known to have trees.
The trees in
Deadvlei,
though, have been dead for over 500 years.
Located in
Namib-Naukluft Park in
Namibia
(Earth), saplings grew after rainfall caused a
local river to overflow,
but died after
sand dunes shifted to section off the river.
High above and far in the distance, the band of our
Milky Way Galaxy forms an arch over a large stalk in this well-timed composite image, taken last month.
The soil of white
clay appears to glow by reflected starlight.
Rising on the left, under the Milky Way's arch, is a band of
zodiacal light -- sunlight reflected by dust orbiting in the inner Solar System.
On the right, just above one of
Earth's
larger sand dunes, an
astute eye can find the
Large Magellanic Cloud,
a satellite galaxy of our galaxy.
Finding the
Small Magellanic Cloud in the
featured image, though, is perhaps too hard.