Sunday, November 24, 2019

NASA has revealed a stunning photo of the Milky Way reflected over the ‘world’s largest mirror.’



NASA has revealed a stunning photo of the Milky Way reflected over the ‘world’s largest mirror.’

The beautiful image was snapped by photographer Jheison Huerta, and has been featured as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day.

The ‘world’s largest mirror’ is in fact that Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia, which is so large and flat that, after a rain, it becomes highly reflective.

NASA explained: “What's being reflected in the world's largest mirror? Stars, galaxies, and a planet.

“Many of these stars are confined to the grand arch that runs across the image, an arch that is the central plane of our home Milky Way Galaxy.

“Inside the arch is another galaxy - the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Stars that are individually visible include Antares on the far left and Sirius on the far right.

“The planet Jupiter shines brightly just below Antares.”

The beautiful photo was snapped in April, and is composed of 15 vertical frames taken consecutively over 10 minutes.

The Uyuni Salt Flats attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, many of who take advantage of the reflective surface to take clever snaps.

National Geographic explained: “Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni is considered one of the most extreme and remarkable vistas in all of South America, if not Earth.

The Milky Way - 1 galaxy out of around 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe



The Milky Way - 1 galaxy out of around 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

Our entire solar system is this little dot of the Milky Way galaxy. There are around 300 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone.