Credit & Copyright: Yang Sutie
Explanation:
Something very bright suddenly lit up the arctic -- what was it?
The original idea was to take a series of
aurora
images that could be made into a
time-lapse video.
But when night suddenly turned into day, the astrophotographer quickly realized that
he was seeing something even more spectacular.
Moving through the sky -- in front of the
Big Dipper no less -- was a
Geminid
meteor
so bright it could be called a
fireball.
The meteor brightened and flashed for several seconds as it went.
By a stroke of good fortune, the aurora camera was able to capture the whole track.
Taken the night after the
Geminids Meteor Shower
peaked, the astrophotographer's location was near
Lovozero Lake in
Murmansk,
Russia, just north of the
Arctic Circle.
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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: fireball - Geminids
Publications with words: fireball - Geminids
See also: