APOD 3.4

This stunning image of the glowing night sky is titled "The Terraced Night" and shows the sky on the night of January 25th over Yunnan Province in Southwest China. The unusually intense red airglow that coats the skyscape caused by chemiluminescence, which according to atoptics.co, is light emitted during a chemical reaction or later from the excited products of a reaction. The chemical energy in this case is provided by the Sun's extreme ultraviolet radiation. In this image, the band of the Milky Way extends over the horizon, and the bright star in the top middle of the frame is Sirius. This photo is really interesting because the colors are what you'd usually expect to see in a sunset, but this photo was taken long after nightfall. The effect of the stars on these colors of the airglow is simply beautiful.