The Milky Way Over the Badlands


Why take a picture of just the Badlands when you can take one that also shows the spectacular sky
above it? Just such a picture, actually a digital stitched panorama of four images, was taken in late
June near midnight, looking southwest. In the foreground, the unusual buttes of the Badlands Wall,
part of the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, USA, were momentarily illuminated by flashlight
during a long duration exposure of the background night sky. The mountain-like buttes visible are
composed of soft rock that show sharp erosion features from wind and water. The South Dakota
Badlands also contain ancient beds rich with easy-to-find fossils. Some fossils are over 25 million
years old and hold clues to the evolutionary origins of the horse and the saber-toothed tiger. The
spectacular Milky Way Galaxy runs down the image right.