A 'Double Helix' Lunar Eclipse with Zodical Light & The Milky Way over China
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This image was timed to capture a total lunar eclipse—but it came with quite a twist. First, the eclipse: the fully Earth-shadowed Moon is visible as an orange orb near the top. The eclipsed Moon's orange color is caused by a slight amount of red light scattered first by Earth's atmosphere, adding a color like a setting Sun. Now, the twist: one of the apparent double helix bands is the Milky Way, the central disk of our home galaxy. The second band is zodiacal light, sunlight scattered by dust within our Solar System. The reason they cross is because the plane where dust orbits our Sun is tilted relative to the plane where stars orbit our Galaxy. This well-known tilt is shown dramatically in the featured wide-angle Mercator-projected picture, spanning from horizon to horizon, captured in early September from Mingantu Observing Station in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Zodiacal light is produced by starlight reflecting off of dust orbiting our Sun. At certain times of the year, a band of sun-reflecting dust from the inner Solar System appears prominently just after sunset—or just before sunrise—and is called zodiacal light. Although the origin of this dust is still being investgated, a leading hypothesis holds that zodiacal dust originates mostly from faint Jupiter-family comets and that it slowly spirals inwards toward the Sun.
Image Description: A wide angle image of the night sky is punctuated by a radio telescope on the lower left. Two bands of light run through the sky—the Milky Way and zodiacal light. The bands intertwine like a double helix. Near the top is an orange orb that is a totally eclipsed moon.
https://english.nao.cas.cn/Research2015/Research_Divisions2015/solar/202012/t20201217_256816.html
Release Date: Nov. 3, 2025
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