NASA's 19 September sky image shows zodiacal light from Hanle in Ladakh, with Jupiter near the eastern horizon and M44 with yellowish Mars toward the zenith. The same page restates a reading, via Juno, that some of that dust comes from Mars.
NASA's 19 September 2026 sky image, credited to Neelam and Ajay Talwar, shows the zodiacal band captured ahead of astronomical twilight at Hanle in Ladakh, India, near 4,500 metres. The altitude is the reserve's. The timing is before astronomical twilight.[1]
The caption puts Jupiter low in the eastward glow and, higher up, open cluster M44 beside yellowish Mars. Those three objects are named on the NASA page. They are not a new catalog. The glow is zodiacal light, sunlight back-scattered by interplanetary dust, as the page describes it. Naming them marks their positions in the frame rather than any new discovery. Followed toward the zenith, the band leads to M44 and Mars near the centre of the frame, and meteors streak the same night sky.[1]
The same NASA page says chance catches of interplanetary dust by Juno point to Mars as one origin of the grains that bounce sunlight into that glow. That restates NASA's older Juno take, not a Juno manuscript dated that Friday.[1]
