Photo by babaktafreshi / Slowly swipe to see the entire view of how we explore the far universe. The Milky Way gleams in all its splendor, as seen from a mountaintop in Chile. Cerro Paranal is home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT), a complex of four scopes in the Atacama Desert. Here, one of them emits a laser for an adaptive optics system that removes the blurring effect caused by air turbulence. Below the bright core of the galaxy is the zodiacal light—sunlight scattered by asteroid dust, appearing through the fading dusk and above the cloud-covered shores of the Pacific Ocean. A satellite flare (sudden reflection of sunlight) appears on the horizon, resembling a meteor. Explore more of night sky wonders with me babaktafreshi. #twanight #nightsky #exploration #atacama esoastronomy