Ancient Bristlecone Pine & The Milky Way Galaxy

Ancient Bristlecone Pine & The Milky Way Galaxy

This gnarly tree is an ancient bristlecone pine growing in the White Mountains of California at an elevation of about 10,000 ft (3,048 m). These bristlecone trees are the oldest living non-clonal organisms in the world. Some of them have been dated to be nearly 5,000 years old. So, they were already alive when the pyramids were being built in Egypt.

Conditions in these remote mountains are very severe, with cold temperatures, a short growing season, high winds, and barren dolomite soil. Yet bristlecone pines thrive in these surroundings and attain their great age not in spite of the harsh environment, but because of it—the pines grow very slowly which makes their wood very dense and resistant to insects, disease, and erosion. They also face little competition for resources as few other species can survive such relentless conditions.

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, California Coordinates: 37.3853, -118.1782

The Fading Milky Way

Light pollution is a growing environmental problem that threatens to erase the night sky before its time. A recent study revealed that perhaps two-thirds of the world's population can no longer look upwards at night and see the Milky Way—a hazy swath of stars that on warm summer nights spans the sky from horizon to horizon.

The Milky Way is dimming, not because the end of the Universe is near, but rather as a result of light pollution: the inadvertent illumination of the atmosphere from street lights, outdoor advertising, homes, schools, airports and other sources. Every night billions of bulbs send their energy skyward where microscopic bits of matter—air molecules, airborne dust, and water vapor droplets—reflect much of the wasted light back to Earth. 

(Source: NASA)

Learn more:

International Dark-Sky Association

https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution

Globe at Night

https://www.globeatnight.org

Night Sky Network (NASA JPL)

https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

 

Image Credit: Photographer: Marcin Zajac 

Summary Author: Marcin Zajac 

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/inyo/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=70821&actid=50

Marcin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrcnzajac

Image Date: Feb. 7, 2022

Release Date: Sept. 1, 2023

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