Star trails over an Andean ice field. Time-exposure image of stars passing over ice penitentes on the Chajnantor Plateau, at an altitude of 5000 metre

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Star trails over an Andean ice field. Time-exposure image of stars passing over ice penitentes on the Chajnantor Plateau, at an altitude of 5000 metres in the Chilean Andes. Penitentes, or nieves penitentes, are a snow formation found at high altitudes. They take the form of tall thin blades of hardened snow, or ice, closely spaced with the blades oriented towards the general direction of the sun.

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Size: 5125px × 3417px
Photo credit: © BABAK TAFRESHI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 2011, america, andean, andes, astronomical, astronomy, chajnantor, chile, chilean, cold, dark, earth, frozen, glaciology, ice, icy, landscape, latin, meteorological, meteorology, mountain, night, november, penitente, penitentes, plateau, shadow, south, space, star, starry, stars, time-exposure, trail, trails, weather