Zodiacal Light
Résumé
The zodiacal light is a faint veil of light visible in the Earth’s night sky. Brighter towards the Sun and the ecliptic, it originates in solar light scattered by a huge cloud of dust particles, mostly of cometary and asteroidal origin. The brightness increases toward the Sun and the near-ecliptic region; it corresponds to an increase in the space density of the cloud, which has a lenticular shape around the Sun. A minor brightness enhancement toward the antisolar region corresponds to a backscattering effect. Thermal emission from zodiacal particles forms, away from the galactic plane, the most prominent component in the near-infrared sky.