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Credit & Copyright: Sean M. Sabatini
Explanation:
There was a shower over
Monument Valley -- but
not water.
Meteors.
The featured image -- actually a composite of six exposures of about 30 seconds
each -- was taken in 2001, a year when there was a very active
Leonids shower.
At that time, Earth was moving through a particularly dense swarm
of sand-sized debris from
Comet Tempel-Tuttle,
so that meteor rates approached one visible streak per second.
The meteors
appear parallel because they all fall to Earth from the
meteor shower radiant --
a point on the sky towards the constellation of the Lion
(Leo).
The yearly Leonids
meteor shower
peaks again this week.
Although the Moon's glow should not obstruct the visibility of many meteors,
this year's shower
will peak with perhaps 15 meteors visible in an hour,
a rate which is good but not expected to rival the
2001 Leonids.
By the way --
how many meteors can you identify
in the featured image?
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Leonids - meteors
Publications with words: Leonids - meteors
See also: