• By Lauren Davis
    Jul 29, 2009 1:30 PM 7,084
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    The Milky Way Glows Over the Devil's Tower

    It's no wonder the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind chose the Devil's Tower National Monument as the place to make first contact with humanity. The sky above offers a clear and startling vision of the cosmos.

    Most geologists believe that Devil's Tower in the Black Hills of Wyoming was formed by a hardened plume of lava that never broke through to the surface. Unlike most national monuments, visitors are allowed to climb Devil's Tower and get an extraordinary view of the night sky. In this view of the Milky Way, we can see strands of the Pipe Nebula:

    As well as the red glow of the Lagoon Nebula to the right of the Tower:

    [Astronomy Picture of the Day]


    Send an email to Lauren Davis, the author of this post, at lauren@io9.com.