A diffuse Milky Way cuts the night sky in half above the barren landscape of Goblin Valley State Park in Utah.Partly hidden behind a river of gas and dust is the brightly burning core of our home galaxy, just visible near the horizon in this image. It lies more than 26,000 light-years away from Earth.

Stretching more than 100,000 light-years across, our Milky Way galaxy is home to some 200 billion stars. On Earth, we see the center of the galaxy from the vantage of one of its outer spiral arms.

—Andrew Fazekas