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Credit & Copyright: Takao Sambommatsu
Explanation:
A meteor, a comet, and a photogenic nebula have all been captured in this single
image.
The closest and most fleeting is the streaking meteor on the upper right -- it was
visible for less than a second.
The meteor, which disintegrated in Earth's atmosphere, was likely a small bit of
debris from the
nucleus of
Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, coincidentally the comet captured in the same image.
Comet 21P, pictured across the inner
Solar System from Earth, is distinctive for its long dust tail spread horizontally
across the image center.
This comet has been visible with binoculars for the past
few months but is
now fading as it heads back out to the orbit of Jupiter.
Farthest out at 3,500 light years distant is the IC 2177, the
Seagull Nebula, visible on the left.
The comparatively vast
Seagull Nebula, with a wingspan on order 250
light-years, will likely remain visible for hundreds of thousands of years.
Long exposures, taken about two weeks ago from
Iwaki-City in
Japan,
were combined to capture the image's faintest elements.
You, too, could see a meteor like this -- and perhaps
sooner than you might think: tonight is the peak of the
Orionids
meteor shower.
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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: meteor - comet
Publications with words: meteor - comet
See also:
- APOD: 2025 January 28 Á Comet G3 ATLAS over Uruguay
- APOD: 2025 January 26 Á The Many Tails of Comet G3 ATLAS
- Comet G3 ATLAS: a Tail and a Telescope
- APOD: 2025 January 21 Á Comet ATLAS over Brasilia
- APOD: 2025 January 20 Á Comet ATLAS Rounds the Sun
- APOD: 2025 January 13 Á Comet ATLAS Before Sunrise
- APOD: 2024 December 16 Á A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko