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Credit & Copyright: Gaurav Singh
Explanation:
For a brief moment,
this brilliant fireball meteor outshone
Jupiter in planet Earth's night.
The serendipitous image was captured while hunting meteors under
cold Canadian skies with a camera in
timelapse mode on December 14,
near the peak of the
Geminid
meteor shower.
The Geminid meteor shower,
asteroid 3200 Phaethon's annual gift,
always arrives in December.
Dust shed along the orbit of the mysterious asteroid
causes the meteor streaks, as the vaporizing grains
plow through our fair planet's upper atmosphere
at 22 kilometers per second.
Of course Geminid shower meteors
appear to radiate
from a point in the constellation of the Twins.
That's below and left of this frame.
With bright Jupiter on the right, also in the
December night
skyview are the
Pleiades and
Hyades
star clusters.
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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: Geminids
Publications with words: Geminids
See also: