Chaco Mesas with Walls

This ruin along the Gallo Wash in Chaco Canyon, NM, gave  ancient visitors to the religious site a perfect view of Fajada Butte in the distance (far right). The Butte is famous for the discovery of a "light dagger" that falls across the center of a spiral design carved into a rock high on the Butte during the winter and summer solstice. Overhead spreads the Bug Nebula, a dark cloud of gas and dust that veils in mystery one of the brightest known dying stars in the Southern Constellation.

STScI-2004-46 courtesy of NASA, ESA, and A. Zijlstra (UMIST, Manchester, UK).

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