With all the light pollution that most of us encounter on a nightly basis, it can be easy to forget why we call our galaxy "The Milky Way."


Fortunately for us, there are photographers like Anton Jankovoy who trek to remote regions of Nepal at elevations of 8,000 meters to capture images like the one shown here.

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait helps explain why this post is tagged as both space porn and geophysical porn:

[Jankovoy] took [the photo] in Annapurna, a region of Nepal that has been uplifted as a whole piece (called a massif) and reaches elevations of over 8000 meters...At 8000 meters, the pressure drops to just 1/3 of that at sea level, and the air is so thin it's difficult to imagine actually hiking there. But clearly, people do. And judging from Anton's photo, it may very well be worth the trouble of visiting. What must it be like to stand in that spot and see first hand such astronomical and geological magnificence?


[Via Bad Astronomy]

You'll find more of Anton Jankovoy's breathtaking photography on his and Mariya Sogrina's flickr photostream.