Swirls of aqua and peach command a starry night sky in the Xigazê region of Tibet in April 2014. Researchers from the National Astronomical Observatories of China in Beijing and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville are observing colorful ripples of airglow. To get the photo, Jeff Dai — then an engineer on a photography holiday and now a full-time photographer — ran a long exposure of 47 seconds.