{"id":111985,"date":"2025-08-26T19:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T19:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/111985\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T19:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T19:21:09","slug":"eerie-zodiacal-light-watch-for-this-strange-glow-in-our-summer-and-fall-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/111985\/","title":{"rendered":"Eerie Zodiacal Light: Watch for this strange glow in our summer and fall sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Night sky lovers have been getting all kinds of treats in the last month: A Perseid meteor shower that\u2019s included fireballs, and a rare \u201cBlack Moon\u201d that gave us a really dark sky – all the better to see the stars.<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re heading into Zodiacal Light season – that time of the late summer and early fall when we can see a distinct glow on the horizon in the darkness before dawn.<\/p>\n

Sky experts say this light kind of looks like a glow from the lights of a distant town – but in a place where no town would be.<\/p>\n

Zodiacal Light – linked to interplanetary dust, experts say – is visible a couple different times each year, around the spring and fall equinoxes, according to EarthSky<\/a>. Right now, we\u2019re heading into the window when this glow can be seen in the pre-dawn sky. <\/p>\n

\"ZodiacalThis photo shows the zodiacal light as it appeared on March 1, 2021, in Skull Valley, Utah. The Pleiades star cluster is visible near the top of the light column. Mars is just below that. | NASA\/JPL-CaltechZodiacal light<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll want to look to the east on dark mornings from late August through November. The best timing is probably about 90 minutes before dawn.<\/p>\n

Another name for this triangle-shaped phenomenon is called \u201cfalse dawn.\u201d On overnights when the moon is bright, you might not be able to see this light.<\/p>\n

So is Zodiacal Light really linked to dust from Mars? Some researchers have drawn this connection.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how EarthSky talks about that:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople used to think zodiacal light originated in Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere. They thought it was a meteorological phenomenon (related to weather).<\/p>\n

\u201cThen scientists thought the zodiacal light was sunlight reflecting off dust grains that orbit the sun in the inner solar system. Which it is. But originally scientists thought maybe these grains were left over from the creation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago, or maybe from comets or asteroids. Recently they discovered that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dust grains do trace out the path of the ecliptic, which is the plane of our solar system and the path of our sun in the sky. But it\u2019s also the path that Mars takes. Mars is home to fierce dust storms, which scientists now believe somehow escaped Martian gravity to create the dusty, reflective light we see.”<\/p>\n

For more about EarthSky\u2019s take on Zodiacal Light, check out their story here.<\/a><\/p>\n

And NASA shares its take on the Mars dust research here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ZodiacalA 19th-century engraving depicting zodiacal light observed at Osray, France. | Image by Universal History Archive \/ Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesUniversal Images Group via Getty<\/p>\n

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