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Credit & Copyright: Renaud & Olivier Coppe
Explanation:
The camera battery died about 2am local time
on August 12,
while shooting
in the bright
moonlit skies
from a garden in Chastre, Brabant Wallon, Belgium, planet Earth.
But not before it captured the frames used to compose this cool
animated gif of a brilliant Perseid meteor and a lingering
visible trail known as a
persistent train.
The Perseid meteor,
a fast moving speck of dust from the tail of
large periodic
Comet Swift-Tuttle,
was heated to incandescence by
ram pressure
and vaporized as it flashed
through the upper atmosphere at 60 kilometers per
second.
Compared to the brief flash of the meteor, its
wraith-like trail really is persistent.
A characteristic of bright meteors,
a smoke-like persistent train can often be followed for many minutes
wafting in the winds at altitudes of 60 to 90 kilometers.
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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: persistent train
Publications with words: persistent train
See also: