                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2024 August 9

                               A Perseid Below
            Image Credit: Ron Garan, ISS Expedition 28 Crew, NASA

   Explanation: Denizens of planet Earth 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 on board the International Space Station orbiting
   at an altitude of about 380 kilometers, the Perseid meteors streak
   below, swept up dust from comet Swift-Tuttle. The vaporizing 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 near 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 2024 Perseid meteor shower is active now and predicted to
   peak near August 12. With interfering bright moonlight absent, this
   year you'll likely see many Perseid meteors under clear, dark skies
   after midnight.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

