Zodiacal Light as seen from the summit area of Mauna Kea

Long-exposure image of the Zodiacal Light as seen from the summit area of Mauna Kea. The Zodiacal Light is caused by sunlight being scattered off of small dust particles that orbit in the inner solar system. A large fraction of the dust comes from collisions between asteroids, much like those bodies discussed in this story. All planetary systems initially form out of a disk of gas and dust that surrounds their parent star, the zodiacal light is the last remnant of the disk that formed our Solar system. Note the lights of Waimea behind the twin Keck domes and Waikoloa/Kona to the left. The Zodiacal Light is the pale, wedge-shaped glow near the center of the image and tilted upward toward the left.