A panoramic photograph taken in 2014 shows the central band of the Milky Way Galaxy arching overhead above Silex Spring, a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The colorful thermal pool, about 10 meters across, is illuminated in the image, its distinctive hues created by layers of bacteria thriving in the hot water.
Steam rises from the spring, heated by underground magma associated with the Yellowstone Hotspot. The billions of stars forming the Milky Way's central band appear far in the distance beyond the geothermal features of the park.
The Yellowstone Hotspot last produced a supervolcanic eruption approximately 640,000 years ago, according to geological records. Such an eruption would significantly affect a large portion of North America.
