Zodiacal Ray with Venus and Jupiter.

What's causing that unusual ray of light extending from the horizon? Dust orbiting the Sun. At certain times of the year, a band of sun-reflecting dust from the inner Solar System appears prominently after sunset or before sunrise and is called zodiacal light . The dust was emitted mostly from faint Jupiter-family comets and slowly spirals into the Sun . The featured HDR image , acquired in mid-February from the Sierra Nevada National Park in Spain , captures the glowing band of zodiacal light going right in front of the bright evening planets Jupiter (upper) and Venus (lower). Emitted from well behind the zodiacal light is a dark night sky that prominently includes the Pleiades star cluster . Jupiter and Venus are slowly switching places in the evening sky , and just in the next few days nearing their closest angular approach .