You Can See Gegenschein

(Image courtesy the European Southern Observatory web site.)

But do you know what it is?  Take a look at this great picture of gegenschein, taken by Yuri Beletsky at the Very Large Telescope in Chile. On dark nights, in places well away from light pollution, you might be able to see this faint band of light that is NOT the Milky Way Galaxy but is, instead, the light of the Sun being reflected off of interplanetary dust particles in our solar system. It lies in the ecliptic, which is the plane of our solar system. So, when you see the gegenschein you’re seeing another part of the solar system — diffuse dust.  It’s everywhere!