Editing Zodiacal light (section)

== Appearance ==
[[File:Zodiacal Light Seen from Paranal.jpg|thumb|upright|Zodiacal light seen from [[Cerro Paranal]]]]
[[File:AS15-98-13325.jpg|thumb|Zodiacal light viewed from the Moon, during [[Apollo 15]]]]

Zodiacal light is produced by sunlight reflecting off dust particles in the Solar System known as [[cosmic dust]]. Consequently, its [[spectroscopy|spectrum]] is the same as the [[sun|solar]] spectrum. The material producing the zodiacal light is located in a lens-shaped volume of space centered on the sun and extending well out beyond the [[orbit]] of Earth. This material is known as the [[interplanetary dust cloud]]. Since most of the material is located near the plane of the Solar System, the zodiacal light is seen along the [[ecliptic]]. The amount of material needed to produce the observed zodiacal light is quite small. If it were in the form of 1&nbsp;mm particles, each with the same [[albedo]] (reflecting power) as the [[Moon]], each particle would be 8&nbsp;km from its neighbors. The [[gegenschein]] may be caused by particles directly opposite the Sun as seen from Earth, which would be in full [[lunar phase|phase]].

According to Nesvorný and Jenniskens, when the dust grains are as small as about 150 micrometres in size, they will hit the Earth at an average speed of 14.5&nbsp;km/s, many as slowly as 12&nbsp;km/s. If so, they pointed out, this [[comet dust]] can survive entry in partially molten form, accounting for the unusual attributes of the [[micrometeorites]] collected in Antarctica, which do not resemble the larger [[meteorites]] known to originate from [[asteroids]]. In recent years, observations by a variety of spacecraft have shown significant structure in the zodiacal light including dust bands associated with debris from particular [[minor planet|asteroid families]] and several cometary trails.