Milky Way Over Goblins

As seen on the National Geographic News a diffuse Milky Way cuts the night sky in half above the barren landscape of Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. Partly hidden behind a river of gas and dust is the brightly burning core of our home galaxy, just visible near the horizon in this image. It lies more than 26,000 light-years away from Earth. Stretching more than 100,000 light-years across, our Milky Way galaxy is home to some 200 billion stars. Wally Pacholka, Astropics.com