Milky Way Behind Three Merlons

Milky Way Behind Three Merlons

Image Credit & Copyright:
Donato Lioce;
Text: Natalia Lewandowska
(SUNY Oswego)

Explanation:
To some, they look like battlements,
here protecting us against the center of the
Milky Way.

The Three
Merlons,
also called the
Three Peaks of Lavaredo, stand tall today because they are made of dense dolomite rock which has better resisted
erosion
than surrounding softer rock.

They formed about
250 million years ago and so are comparable in age with one of the
great extinctions of life on
Earth.

A leading hypothesis is that this great
extinction
was triggered by an
asteroid about 10-km across, larger in size than
Mount Everest, impacting the Earth.

Humans have gazed up at the stars in the
Milky Way and beyond for centuries,
making these battlefield-like formations, based in the
Sexten Dolomites, a popular place for
current and
ancient astronomers.