Explanation: This stairway in Chile brings you only a little bit closer to heaven. But ooh, the sky above it
makes you wonder. For example, you may wonder about the dark lane of our own
Milky Way galaxy rising behind the expansive
Atacama Desert in
Chile, the band of
zodiacal light on the upper left, the green and red
airglow just above the horizon, the star
Spica in the zodiacal light stripe, and, at the very top on the right, the
Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy. The Desert Staircase sculpture is in the foreground, and this image was timed to catch the picturesque peering perch just in front of the near-
vertical Milky Way band. Upon
close inspection of the horizon you can find, left to right, some
Andes Mountains, the
Licancabur volcano, and the town lights of
San Pedro de Atacama. The
featured wide-angle composite was captured in July 2025.
Tomorrow's picture: space bees