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Credit & Copyright: Jakub Kuåök
Explanation:
This was a good year for the
Perseids meteor shower.
A key reason was
the Moon was absent from lighting up
Earth's night sky so that
more meteors were visible than usual.
Where was the Moon?
It was busy
visiting the Sun.
Near the Perseids peak, the Moon moved directly in front of the Sun and created a total
solar eclipse visible from
Greenland and
Spain.
The Perseids occur when the Earth collides with a
stream of Sun-orbiting debris cast off by
Comet Swift-Tuttle.
Perseid meteors, although typically only the size of a
sand grain,
tend to be fast and bright because Swift-Tuttle's debris orbits
the Sun in a direction partly opposite Earth's orbital motion.
In the
featured image compilation, accumulated over several nights from
Jizerka in the
Czech Republic, the Perseids meteor streaks can be traced back to a single location on the sky -- its
radiant in
Perseus.
Gallery:
Perseids Meteor Shower of 2026
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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 - Perseids
Publications with words: meteor shower - Perseids
See also:
- Perseids Over a Little Planet
- APOD: 2025 December 15 Á Gemini Meteors over Snow Capped Mountains
- APOD: 2025 August 21 Á Mostly Perseids
- APOD: 2025 August 20 Á Perseid Meteors from Durdle Door
- APOD: 2025 August 12 Á Perseids from Perseus
- APOD: 2025 August 3 Á Milky Way and Exploding Meteor
- APOD: 2024 December 10 Á The Great Meteor Storm of 1833