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What it is : TheMilky Wayover Valle de la Luna ( Valley of the Moon )

Where it is : The Atacama Desert , in Chile

A magical night in the Atacama Desert.

A magical night in the Atacama Desert.

Why it ’s so exceptional : Astronomy has long been conducted mainly from mountaintops and other high - altitude positioning , far above Earth ’s blistering , dense strain and far from lightheaded pollution . It does n’t get much higher than the Atacama Desert in Chile , which , at an superlative of around 7,900 foot ( 2,400 meter ) , is the stark place for astronomy . It ’s household to the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array ( ALMA ) , a compendium of radio telescope antennas forobserving molecular gas and debris in the cosmos .

However , as astrophotographer Petr Horálek chance upon when on designation for the European Southern Observatory ( ESO ) , one of the partner in the international collaboration that guide ALMA , there ’s much more to the Atacama Desert than its suitability for observations .

The foreground of the " magical " image , published by ESO on Nov. 27 , shows strange geologic formation poking out of the Valle de la Luna ( Valley of the Moon ) , an ethereal ecosystem in the Atacama Desert full of time - carved stone structure and clean - capped salt lakes .

An image of the Milky Way captured by the MeerKAT radio telescope. At the center of the MeerKAT image the region surrounding the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole blazes bright. Huge vertical filamentary structures echo those captured on a smaller scale by Webb in Sagittarius C’s blue-green hydrogen cloud.

The " wizard ’s hat " rock organisation in this skillfully composed image conduce the eye to theMilky Way , which take on a pinkish pinch . That color reveals hydrogen atom distributed throughout our galaxy . These atomic number 1 atoms show up in dark - sky images only if the photographer uses H - alpha ( H - alpha ) filter , which channel one specific wavelength of igniter .

— blank photo of the week : Gargantuan sunspots photobomb the world ’s large scope

— Space photo of the week : China ’s ' heavenly castle ' blank station looms in first complete figure

a photo of the Milky Way reflecting off of an alpine lake at night

— Space photo of the week : A radio ' doughnut of fire ' shows a solar eclipse as never seen before

you could get at azoomable versionof the photo and options to download all kinds of resolutions up to a massive 148 - megapixel raw data file on the ESO ’s web site , linked just above .

How to visit : Valle de la Luna is turn up 8 miles ( 13 klick ) westward of San Pedro de Atacama , in La Cordillera de la Sal ( " Salt Mountains " ) in northern Chile . It ’s a popular tourist attraction and on the itinerary of most organized tour to the region .

A photo of the sun setting from the Moon

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features part of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

a photograph of Mars rising behind the moon

An aerial photo showing a dozen large, star-shaped sand dunes in the Sahara desert

images showing auroras on Jupiter

An image of the Eagle Nebula, a cluster of young stars.

An artist�s illustration of long ribbon-like auroras rippling across the Martian sky

an illustration of a base on the moon

person using binoculars to look at the stars

A composite image of the rings on Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter

Fragment of a stone with relief carving in the ground

An illustration of microbiota in the gut

an illustration of DNA

a reconstruction of an early reptile