A Perseid Below
Explanation:
Earthlings typically watch meteor showers by looking up.
But this
remarkable view, captured on August 13, 2011 by astronaut
Ron Garan, caught a Perseid meteor by looking down.
From Garan's
perspective onboard the
International Space Station
orbiting at an altitude of about 380 kilometers,
the Perseid meteors streak below,
swept up dust
left from comet Swift-Tuttle heated to
incandescence.
The
glowing comet dust
grains are traveling at
about 60 kilometers per
second through
the denser atmosphere around 100 kilometers above Earth's surface.
In this case, the foreshortened
meteor flash is right of frame center,
below the curving limb of the Earth and a layer of greenish
airglow, just below bright star
Arcturus.
Want to
look up at a meteor shower?
You're in luck, as the 2021
Perseids meteor shower
peaks this week.
This year, even relatively
faint meteors should be visible through clear skies from
a dark location as the bright Moon will mostly absent.
Notable Perseids Submissions to APOD:
2018,
2019,
2020
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
