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Credit & Copyright: Fefo Bouvier
Explanation:
Fireflies flash along a moonlit countryside in this scene
taken on the night of December 13/14
from southern Uruguay, planet Earth.
On that night meteors fell in the partly cloudy skies above during the
annual
Geminid meteor shower.
Frames recorded over a period of 1.5 hours are aligned
in the composite image made with the camera facing south.
That direction was opposite the shower's radiant
toward the north and so the
Geminid
meteor streaks
appear to converge at an antiradiant below the southern horizon.
The shower's apparent radiant (and
antiradiant) is just due to
perspective though.
As Earth sweeps through the dust trail of
mysterious
asteroid 3200 Phaethon,
the dust grains that create the Geminid shower meteors
are really moving along parallel tracks.
They enter Earth's atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per
second.
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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 shower
Publications with words: meteor shower
See also: