ET Goes Home

In a starry night of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, United States, the spectacular view of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, appears over strange-looking rock formations called hoodoos. The one in the middle right is known as the ET Hoodoo for its shape reminding the character of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a 1982 Steven Spielberg science fiction film. Hoodoos are towers of weathered, eroded sedimentary rock, found in arid regions of planet Earth and are particularly abundant in the southern Utah. Bright star Antares at the heart of the celestial scorpion (Scorpius) is on the right, Altair, marking the neck of Aquila (the Eagle) is right above the ET, and Deneb, the tail of Cygnus (the Swan) is near the middle top.