Alien Planet's Night Sky is Awash in Exozodiacal Light | Space Video

642 views · Published 5 November 2014 · 0:37 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: CoconutScienceLab · 2014 · Science & Technology

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More space news and info at: http://www.coconutsciencelab.com - this is an artist's view of an imaginary planet showing the brilliant glow of exozodiacal light, extending up into the sky and swamping the Milky Way.

Zodiacal light is sunlight reflected from dust particles created as the result of collisions between asteroids, as well as the evaporation of comets. This dust is present in our own solar system, whereas "exozodiacal light" refers to the dust present in other solar systems.

Zodiacal light looks like a faint white glow when seen in the night sky after the end of twilight, or before dawn.

Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, astronomers have recently discovered exozodiacal light close to the habitable zones around nine nearby stars. 

The presence of such thick dust around some stars may pose an obstacle to the direct imaging of Earth-like planets in the future.

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Credits: European Southern Observatory, L. Calçada

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