zodiacal light

noun

: a diffuse glow seen in the west after twilight and in the east before dawn

Examples of zodiacal light in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But to come to conclusions about the transition between solar corona, the solar wind and the heliosphere, scientists need to isolate extremely faint features within all the solar material — and to isolate those features, there can't be any interference like background stars or zodiacal light. —Monisha Ravisetti, Space.com, 18 Apr. 2025

The zodiacal light is a phenomenon that can occur just after sunset or before sunrise, where tiny particles of dust in the atmosphere scatter the sunlight to create the band of hazy blue light glowing in the sky. —Space.com Staff, Space.com, 1 Jan. 2025

That’s really faint, but in certain circumstances the zodiacal light can still be visible to the unaided eye from very dark sites. —Phil Plait, Scientific American, 4 Oct. 2024

The sunlight scattering off this interplanetary dust is called zodiacal light and is roughly 24.5 mag/arcsec2. —Phil Plait, Scientific American, 4 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1734, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for zodiacal light

• actinolite
• adipocyte
• amphibolite
• anorthosite
• anthophyllite
• aragonite
• carbonatite
• cassiterite
• cristobalite
• crocidolite
• diatomite
• dithionite