Mosaic of sky with Milky Way, taken by the Pan-STARRS observatory in Haleakala, Maui.

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A mosaic of sky photographs taken by the Pan-STARRS Observatory at the summit of Haleakala on Maui. The center of the circle is the north celestial pole, and the outer edge is a sky declination of -30 degrees, which is where the Pan-STARRS survey stopped (because it reached the southern horizon as seen in Hawai'i). The bright band extending from top to bottom is our Milky Way galaxy. The center of the galaxy is near the bottom edge of the image where the galaxy is brightest. In the plane of the Milky Way, dark filaments and clouds show cosmic dust, which absorbs blue light and makes the objects appear much redder. The Pan-STARRS data have been used to produce the best map of our galaxy's dust by analyzing the colors and brightnesses of these stars.

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Size: 4200px × 4126px
Location:
Photo credit: © Stocktrek Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

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