A Night Sky over the Tatra Mountains

A Night Sky over the Tatra Mountains

Image Credit:
Marcin Rosadziński;
Text: Natalia Lewandowska
(SUNY Oswego)

Explanation:
A natural border between
Slovakia and
Poland is the
Tatra Mountains.

A prominent destination for astrophotographers,
the Tatras are the highest mountain range in the
Carpathians.

In the featured image taken in May, one can see the center of
our
Milky Way
galaxy with two of its famous
stellar nurseries, the
Lagoon and
Omega Nebula,
just over the top of the Tatras.

Stellar nurseries are full of
ionized hydrogen,
a fundamental component for the formation of
Earth-abundant water.

As a fundamental ingredient in all known
forms of life, water is a
crucial element in the
Universe.

Such water
can be seen in the foreground in the form of the
Bialka River.