Lightning and Orion Beyond Uluru
Image Credit & Copyright:
Park Liu
What's happening behind Uluru?
A United Nations World Heritage Site,
Uluru
is an extraordinary 350-meter high mountain in central
Australia
that rises sharply from nearly flat surroundings.
Composed of sandstone, Uluru has
slowly formed over the past 300 million years as softer rock eroded away.
In the background of the featured image taken in mid-May,
a raging thunderstorm is visible.
Far behind both
Uluru and the
thunderstorm is a
star-filled sky highlighted by the constellation of Orion.
The Uluru region has been a
home to humans for
over 22,000 years.
Local
indigenous people have long noted that when the
stars that compose the
modern constellation of Orion first appear in the night sky, a
hot season involving
lightning storms will soon be arriving.