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A Dark, Dying Sky Over Death Valley [Panoramic Pic]

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov — This eerie glow over Death Valley is in danger. Scrolling right will show a spectacular view from one of the darkest places left in the continental USA: Death Valley, California. The arch across the middle is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Light pollution is threatening scenes like this across the world - enjoy them while you still can!

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  • macinpcusr, on 10/12/2007, -12/+29Out of this world!
    • gldfshnpcklejar, on 10/12/2007, -47/+2I believe a better way to express your feelings of how breathtaking it is would be: "Sweet Skeet"
    • robdiggity, on 10/12/2007, -3/+83This shot just became my Beryl skydome.
    • OsiVert, on 10/12/2007, -2/+58I was in death valley 3 months ago, and the light pollution is coming from Las Vegas. You can see a glow over the mountains to the east all night long. It's kind of sad, actually.
    • drlha, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26Yeah, but Vegas just wouldn't be the same if it was all low-pressure Sodium lamps!
    • jasz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+37/me has a new background..
    • fotofunguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I've been to Death valley national park recently. Most places in there really feel like from another planet
    • Infowarmachine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13lol i think everyone has just found their new desktop
      i also set it on mine, its perfect for dual monitors
    • WraythX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Some of us managed to grow up with that whilst living close to a major city (Wellington, NZ) and everytime I go home it is still just as glorious only 15 minutes out of the city. At least NZ will always be a bastion of wonderful views :)
    • Ngai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5If only it looked like this everywhere.... but damn lights, cities, etc...
      they hide the fact of where we're at...
    • macmcrae, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10After living in the city, it is kind of scary to look up and see so much natural light coming from the night sky.
      This kind of view of our galaxy is definitely one of the only advantages to living in a microscopic secluded town in central georgia.
      I bet most people live their whole life without ever experiencing this kind of unpolluted view of the night sky.
    • 1b2a, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1So much... death.
    • Stormwysper, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Sorry for the comment hijack, but how do you stretch a single wallpaper between two monitors (I just went to two today and this would be perfect).
    • ChocoMidget, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I don't know if anybody mentioned that this is at the race track which you get to from a like 26 mile road that leads off from the Ubehebe Crater. Also everyone says its amazing that these rocks move so mysteriously. Go spend a night up on the race track and take a sleeping pill. The two nights I was up there we experienced winds that flattened our tents on top of us, these are 4 persons tents mind you rated to handle 50 mph winds. The first night nobody slept, its hard to with your tent smacking you in the face every 5 seconds.
    • moresheth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8@Stormwysper

      If you are using Windows, you can set the image to your desktop and select "Tile" - and it will continue across both monitors.

      It would be best to size it to your screen resolution, though, to get the best effect. To do this,I added up the total pixels for my setup and went into Photoshop and set the crop tool to 2304x1024 at 72 dpi, and selected the area I wanted. Just save and apply after that. Just be sure to use Tile.
    • xspinkickx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@robdiggity

      as soon as I saw it I said the same thing
  • NelaBella, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3awesome
  • jimsf, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Wow! That is exceptional.
  • Billiam627, on 10/12/2007, -4/+96This is bar none the best picture I have seen on digg. And that even includes all the funny cat pictures.
  • PeteyEks, on 10/12/2007, -31/+6Damn, so where's Thrallmar? It looks like the Outlands in World of Warcraft.
  • Petrarch1603, on 10/12/2007, -13/+6why the agenda in the description, there are plenty of dark places to observe the stars. not to mention a lot of them are at high altitudes where the air is thin.
  • SirBotchness, on 10/12/2007, -86/+8i highly doubt light "pollution" will be a problem for death valley, i don't see the next chicago popping up out there.

    also, i can drive 20 miles south of my city and see the same deal.

    cool pic btw
    • MrSkrilla, on 10/12/2007, -5/+66Let's see the pictures then asshole
    • thescimitar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+31I doubt that highly. The city you live in must be very small, or magically invisible at night... twenty miles from here (nyc) and it's still a bright orange sky. Moreover, for deepsky imaging, even distant light pollution is a problem.
    • SirBotchness, on 10/12/2007, -46/+6so you're all experts on this subject, thats cool.
    • Kerakera, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I live an hour outside a large city and the sky isn't very vibrant due to the light pollution from the city and my neighbors thinking they need spot lights in their yards (as if anyone wants to steal their lawn ornaments?). It's actually gotten worse in the ten years I've lived here.
    • BenKenobi88, on 10/12/2007, -19/+3dugg down for dissing Chicago.
    • greenlight2001, on 10/12/2007, -18/+1575% of Chicago is a ***** hole.
    • quantumHobbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25I'm Just Curious which city SirBotchness is referring to. He probably isn't lying, keep in mind dense cities in the US are the exception rather than the rule. Suburbs however are the real culprit with light pollution because they spread the light over a larger area.

      @scimitar twenty miles south of NYC I'll assume Manhattan is probably Long Island which is guess what? a well populated suburb. No wonder you can see any sky in the largest megalopolis in the nation. Twenty miles South of where I am now, Baton Rouge, is the middle of nowhere. You can't see as much mostly due to humidity, but you get my point.

      Note: I traveled to Arizona once and spent a frigid cold night in Navajo country staring at the sky. This picture doesn't do it justice. If you are at all interested in astronomy. Spend some time in a desert staring at the sky. It is really amazing.
    • quantumHobbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I meant can't see in above timer ran out.
      @greenlight2001
      I'll admit you're right about that, but I'm still a huge fan of the other 25%.
    • greenlight2001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Very true. The other 25% is awesome. It's that 25% that makes me go back and visit friends out there every now and again. I didn't just throw that comment out for nothing, I've seen a vast majority of the city (my friend loves to drive the city and tour guide for me).
    • jdelamater, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2@quantumhobbit

      "twenty miles south of NYC I'll assume Manhattan is probably Long Island"

      Try checking a map before spouting off geography. Immediately south off Manhattan is Brooklyn, another borough of NYC. Twenty miles south of Brooklyn? New Jersey. I don't doubt your point, but saying that Long Island is 20 miles south when in fact it is immediately east is laughable.

      However, while Jersey is the nation's armpit and has a great deal of industry, there are certain areas where there is nothing going on. However, that pollution from NYC and the surrounding industries is ridiculous, so you probably can't see what's going on.
    • Humptydank, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15
      I live in New York City, and my sky looks like a ceiling.

    • HayString, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3@greenlight,
      they're digging you down b/c 100% of Chicago is a ***** hole, not just 75%
    • greenlight2001, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Naw. It's not THAT bad. There are a few nice spots.... not many, but a few.
    • quantumHobbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3jdelamater
      Never said I was great with Geography, but I did look at a map and Brooklyn is only 1-2 miles south of Manhattan it also appears to be part of western Long Island. Maybe its not called Long Island there but like I said I don't know New York geography too well. 20 miles due South appears to be Lower New York Bay or maybe Coney Island. The point is moot but Is Brooklyn part of Long Island or not because now I'm confused.
    • macmcrae, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2 "75% of chicago is a ***** hole"
      Bwahahahaha
      That is some funny *****.
      Damn you all to hell industrial revolution!!!!1111
      Awesome quote.
      I can't help myself. Digg me down I deserve it.
    • Rev0lver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@quantumhobbit

      Brooklyn and Queens are not considered part of Long Island due to their proximity to Manhattan. Those three boroughs in addition to the Bronx and Staten Island make up the five borough that make up "New York City", despite the fact that Manhattan is typically referred to as "The City".

      Once you go east enough to hit Nassau, THEN you're in Long Island.
    • Humptydank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
      Long Island is made up of two counties -- Nassau and Suffolk. And since Nassau is in the Bahamas and Suffolk is in England, and you can drive to both of them from Brooklyn, you can see why it's called Long Island.

    • quantumHobbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Humpty and revolver, thanks for the explanation. I feel that I will better understand Seinfeld reruns now.
    • darkstorm777, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@greenlight2001

      Cheese head comment noted....stupid packer fans.
  • Innova69, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2@marksmayo

    That's awesome!
    This will make a great panoramic wall paper for my multi-monitor desktop.

    Thanks, marksmayo
  • Deano3041, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2panoramic pictures are always nice but this one is incredible
  • pearmanjim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+63oh no! a moving rock!
    • Misaiato, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Dude - rocks moving off mountains can create, like, valleys and *****. Oh wait.
    • marklj, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Yeah, whats up with that? I was hoping some of the comments would offer some insight.
    • greenlight2001, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Constant cycle of thawing (during the early morning) and freezing (during the night) of the dirt slowly moves the rock around. Thats my guess anyways.


      http://www.billandcori.com/deathvalley/dv_moving_rocks.htm
    • stanleyford, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Actually, this is a real phenomenon. There's a part of Death Valley where rocks seemingly move around on their own. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racetrack_Playa
    • KitchenRaider, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2When it rains the ground gets slippery and the rocks move slightly making paths in the earth. I think I heard that from National Geograpic or something...
    • Armor1901, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10You should read the caption beneath the article. The rock moved during a recent rain storm.

      "...an unusually placed rock that was pushed by high winds onto Racetrack Playa after a slick rain."
    • r0ryb0ryalis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I still think something so suspicious must be a BOMB
    • shinynew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2ITT misinformation.
  • cptn_cardboard, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4thanks for the wallpaper!
    (dual monitors)
    • MadScientist420, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4mind telling me how to get the pic to wrap to both monitors? For some reason I have the whole pic on each one...
    • Silentnite85, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Should be under the display options, click extend desktop. Worked for me anyways, on XP.
    • cptn_cardboard, on 10/12/2007, -14/+3@madscientist420
      linux
    • MadScientist420, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6can't run Linux. This computer is my workhorse...runs a mass spec, electron and x-ray spectrometers, FTIR, etc, all of which can not be run on Linux currently.

      Still looking for the extend desktop option in XP....
    • MadScientist420, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5found it.
    • dvdcpu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I don't think there's an option for it. You'll have to resize it to your exact monitor resolution (after spanning) and set it to Center.
  • UtahApocalyse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23I do amateur astronomy in Utah. The club I am in about 10 years ago picked a nice dark location about 45 mins from Salt Lake in the Tooele area. Now that area has grown so much we have lost most of the dark skies we once had there. I hope everyone, especially younger kids get a chance to go somewhere REALLY dark and see the night sky. there is nothing else like it, and someday we may not be able to see it.
    • quantumHobbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Agreed. There is nothing like seeing it in person. You can actually see depth(not really but it appears that way for some reason). Also no monitor will capture the contrast or the "twinkling". Seeing a sky like that above your head gives you sense of awe in creation or of your place in the universe. It's little wonder ancient people looked up at the sky and saw gods there.
    • shinynew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yea, I am 17 and until i went to Crete i never truly saw the night sky.
      There we walked on a beach a couple hours away from any city, and were able to see the milky way and just about everything else.

      Will our interest in space fade as the night sky does?
    • Cloned, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1We have laws in my town to reduce light pollution, we were even the first "dark sky" city in the world. I never thought the laws were that important, but now that I see this picture and know what light pollution really can do, I wish more cities would follow suit with light pollution prevention.
    • jhnewt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2When I was younger and did some camping in north Wisconsin, I remember looking at the stars on a clear night and just thinking it was amazing how many stars there were. There's so many and in some spots it really does look "milky". You can't see anything like that anywhere near any mentionable city. And light pollution seems to only be getting worse.

      It's sad to think that one day the phrase "as many as the stars are in the sky" may mean less than "as many channels on TV".
  • Wonkanobi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Hello my new desktop
  • Dotcommer, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3"Tomorrow's picture: aggressive snowflakes".


    haha
    • InsaneMachine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Don't diss the snowflakes, they can get really vicious. Think back to the blizzard we had this winter.
    • bryan986, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3you dont get frostbite from the cold, you get it from angry little snowflakes biting you
  • warmonger48, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Imagine what the ancients thought when they looked up and saw that.
    • wonboodoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31"Ugg boooga boomba"?
    • theroyalweman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+65"I believe that whoever put those stars up there surely doesn't want us to have pre-marital sex."
    • shinynew, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1"If anything explains what these are and it does not contain, 'super natural' or 'magic' then I shall not believe it."
  • NikoKun, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I can see one of those moving Rocks! it even has a trail in the dirt behind it!
    btw, is there a chance the exposure time is set a little long? somehow I think the ground wouldn't be that bright, and for that matter the stars might not be THAT easy to see with the naked eye... =/

    Although I have seen skys like that... one hell of a sight to see the galaxy...
  • lithuin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Are those rocks and trails the magical rocks that move around on their own when nobody is looking?
    Those rocks are awesome.
  • ghettron, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5Great pic, but i doubt it looks like this with the naked eye. It looks like it was taken with infrared film.
    • boren, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9It's really sad that you don't even know that this is what it could look like if we didn't have all the light pollution. Yes, you can manage light pollution.
    • ghettron, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I used to live in 29 Palms and spent a lot of time in the Joshua Tree National Park. It is a breathtaking view at night. I am just saying that this was probably shot with infrared film that enchances the effect. Also, long exposures make fainter stars more visible. Even if it were in color it would not look like this to the naked eye.
  • itsHef, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Dude, that's epic!
  • roguescout, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Yeah! The Racetrack at night. If you guys think that is amazing, you should try the sunrise in Death Valley on a clear day. Just set up a lawn chair facing east and wait. Nothing else is quite like the very moment the Sun's rays break over the distant peaks and spill into the valley.
  • carbonetc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14If we all still had that above us every night the psychological effect on society could be palpable. We might not be so quick to assume that we're so important.

    Or we'd just take it for granted like everything else.
    • 0crabby0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The Iraqi's don't have electricity most of time - I wonder if they look up?

  • wing05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Time to send another raccoon into a transformer station that'll take down the entire grid for a few days and give us another great blackout, star gazing from within cities, neighbourhood barbecues, etc...
  • finista, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Set as desktop background.

    Excellent for my widescreen monitor.
  • superbonbon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14I pulled over in the middle of the Nevada desert on a drive to Las Vegas and stepped outside of my car and I was really humbled by the beauty of the sky at night. It was so dark I could barely see my car from 10 feet away, but the stars illuminated the sky in such a way I literally held my breath in wonder. Now back in the city whenever I glance up at the sky, most the stars are obstructed by the hazy glow of artificial light. I think everyone should try to get to a very dark isolated place and just observe the millions of stars at least once in their life.
    • finista, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1You'd be lucky to see about three thousand of them. 5000 is the most.
    • Livewire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2try looking out an airplane window when you're over the Atlantic at night...
      I seriously couldn't take my eyes off that scene. It's something a camera can never capture.
  • AllLitUp, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2nothing is better than the cat pics.
  • monergism, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3No EXIF info :(
  • LiquidChimera, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Inspiring
  • NinjaBoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14I come from a town with the population of 1,000 and i always think its funny how people come to visit always spend a few hours looking at the sky.
    • 0crabby0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I live in small town too. They don't look up, - but they take my leaves off of the trees...lol
    • nrt25, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I guess its one advantage to living out in the middle of no where (Eastern Oregon) , I get views like that often enough...
  • techmoney, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Does the band of the Milky Way depicted in the picture remind you of an ouroboros symbol? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros The galaxy center(?) on the right side almost looks like the head of a snake biting its own tail.
  • alienex, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Incredible, I want to go there I dont like too far either.
  • padlock7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3That is an absolutely gorgeous picture. Wow. I miss the seeing the stars at night. I live in a city and I can't see jack *****. But either way...... look at those stars... wow.
  • SebHughes, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Mirror To Image:

    http://www.files.vanillamints.com/digg/dark_sky_death_vally
    • terminality, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I appreciate it, really I do, but nasas servers aren't known for their instability.
  • MadMastaZ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3So the color was taken out and left it to look gray, spooky and scary?

    nice.
  • 16777216, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Thanks, I love my new skydome.
  • gostars, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4What's a skydome?
    • InsaneMachine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Skydome is a concept in Beryl and Compiz that refers to the background that is used when switching between desktops.

      A good picture for the skydome background is one with a 2:1 aspect ratio: a panoramic shot, due to the wrapping of the background onto the skydome sphere that wraps the image around a virtual cylinder.

      http://swik.net/Skydome
  • Stevethegreat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That clear sight of Milky Way's central band from earth's surface gives you a perspective about our place in our Galaxy, it's not hard from then on how are we placed in the cosmos..... incredible!
  • nkap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Makes me want to play Fallout real bad....
  • omgwtfwallhack, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1We need someone to colorize it , then it would look truly badass!
  • onesidedsquare, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2i think speak for everyone who sees it when i say "WOW"
  • cyranthus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2this will be my desktop when i get home.
  • saifatlast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wikipedians go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/The_Milky_Way_over_Death_Vally to opposesupport this as a featured picture. I didn't start that this or anything, it just happened to be going on right now. The votes of just a bunch of random diggers won't count as much I don't think, but if anyone is active on wikipedia, theirs probably would have a little more weight.
  • PlaztikJeezus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I must go there!
  • nastysquar3d, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The picture is awesome but it will never do the real thing justice.
    I've been to Arizona and traveled up the mountains outside of Tuscon at night.

    The clarity of the night sky is truly amazing, and I'm sure Death Valley is even more spectacular.
    If you're ever out West you would be doing yourself a great disservice if you didn't go somewhere you can view the night sky with little interference from light pollution.
  • Namakemono, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Some of the darkest sky in the US is at Great Basin National Park. Words cannot describe how breathtaking the night sky is there.

    http://www.nps.gov/grba/
  • theratdotus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7ive never been out of nyc my entire life, i have never looked up and saw a sky full of stars. i feel like a mutant.. a sad mutant
    • jonssonar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Its ok... most digg users have never been outdoors, away from their computers in the past 10 years... They are all sad... sad mutants.
    • BHSPitMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@jonssonar

      Yourself included?
  • ElbridgeGerry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I see unrivaled beauty, and all I can think of is how well this will look as the skydome on my Ubuntu laptop.

    What's wrong with me?
  • TheToecutter, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2How does a sky "die" really?
  • Error601, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It won't be too long before you need a boat to get the best view of the sky. There's still lot of very dark ocean out there.
  • birdman1169, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1I want everyone to stop using any type of device that makes light during the night. Use one square of toilet paper to wipe there ass. Don't even think of driving your car anywhere. Just sit in you house and eat your vegetable's and we might make it through this.
  • mutatron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Some people hate the night. Probably the same ones who think it would be fine to have 50 billion people on the Earth.
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