Tetons and Snake River, Planet Earth

As seen on Astronomy Picture of the Day, an alluring night skyscape, this scene looks west across the Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA, Planet Earth. The Snake River glides through the foreground, while above the Tetons’ rugged mountain peaks the starry sky is laced with exceptionally strong red and green airglow. That night, the luminous atmospheric glow was just faintly visible to the eye, its color and wavey structure captured only by a sensitive digital camera. In fact, this contemporary digital photograph matches the location and perspective of a well-known photograph from 1942 – The Tetons and The Snake River, by Ansel Adams; one of 115 images stored on the Voyager spacecrafts Golden Record headed toward interstellar space.
The Teton Range is a part of the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in the range, is 4,199 m (13,775 ft) high. Airglow is the natural emission from the Earth upper atmosphere in green and red-yellow bands and wave like forms that appear faint and colorless to human eyes under dark skies. Click on the second photo to see a close-up view of the fascinating airglow structures in this picture.

Fine Art Print