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LiveScience
LiveScience
Jamie Carter

Giant 'X' appears over Chile as 2 celestial beams of light cross: Space photo of the week

Chile the Milky Way Petr Horálek Atacama Desert
The Milky Way and zodiacal light crisscross above the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. (Image credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava))
QUICK FACTS

What it is: The luminous band of the Milky Way and the faint glow of zodiacal light

Where it is: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile

When it was shared: Aug. 6, 2025

This stunning image from astrophotographer Petr Horálek captures two of the night sky's most glorious sights in one — the glowing heart of the Milky Way and the elusive "zodiacal light." Despite appearing alongside one another, these two streaks of light could not be more different in origin and composition.

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