The Milky Way and the zodiacal light intersect over the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. QUICK FACTS
What is it: The glowing band of the Milky Way and the soft glow of the zodiacal light.
Location: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile
When published: August 6, 2025
This stunning image by astrophotographer Petr Gorálek captures two of the most spectacular features of the night sky: the glowing core of the Milky Way and the elusive “zodiacal light.” Although the two bands of light appear side by side, their origin and composition are completely different.
Astronomers have built some of the most advanced telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere to study in detail the Milky Way's bright core, which is rich in stars and nebulae. It passes through constellations such as Scorpius, Sagittarius and Ophiuchus, which rise higher in the sky as they move south.
This image was taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), located at an altitude of 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) in the Chilean Andes, in the southern Atacama Desert. At this altitude, above the thickest and warmest part of Earth’s atmosphere, the sky is typically incredibly clear and dark, allowing observers to see not only the bright band of the Milky Way, but also something less visible in our solar system: the zodiacal light.
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