Credit & Copyright: Vincent Duparc
Explanation:
Meteor showers are caused by streams of solid particles,
dust size and larger, moving as a group through space.
In most cases, the orbits of these
meteor streams can be identified with
dust expelled from a comet.
When the Earth passes through a stream,
the particles leave brilliant trails through the night sky as they disintegrate in
Earth's
atmosphere.
The meteor paths are all
parallel to each other, but,
like
train tracks,
the effect of perspective causes them to appear to originate from a
radiant point in the distance.
The featured image composite was taken during January's
Quadrantid meteor shower from
La Palma,
one of Spain's
Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of
Africa.
The Quadrantids
radiant is visible just below the handle of the
Big Dipper.
A careful eye will also discern the faint
green coma of
Comet Wirtanen.
Tonight is the peak of the modest
Lyrid meteor shower, with several
meteors per hour visible from dark locations with clear skies.
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 |
Yanvar' Fevral' Mart Aprel' Mai Iyun' Iyul' Avgust Sentyabr' Oktyabr' Noyabr' Dekabr' |
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
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Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami:
meteor - comet - Meteor - komety
Publikacii so slovami: meteor - comet - Meteor - komety | |
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