image credit: Dominic Cantin; image source; larger image
Zodiacal Light
The faint glow in the sky is the zodiacal light, caused by scattering of sunlight from dust particles orbiting the sun. To find out how extraordinarily far apart these dust particles are, see Zodiacal light and the Gegenshein.
Login to Comment on this Item
Curious About Astronomy?
Got a question about astronomy? There's lots of webpages at this site with text and images about the planets, stars, and the universe. Perhaps best of all, you can ask a question directly to a Cornell astronomer. You can even see the archives of past questions and answers.