Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 December 9
                                      [2]
                        Aurora Shimmer, Meteor Flash
               Image Credit & Copyright: Bjornar G. Hansen  [3]

Explanation: Some night skies are serene and passive -- others shimmer and
flash. The later, in the form of auroras [4]  and meteors, haunted skies over
[5]  the island of Kvaloya, near Tromso Norway on 2009 December 13. This 30
second long exposure records a shimmering auroral [6] glow gently lighting the
wintery coastal scene. A study in contrasts, the image also captures the
sudden flash of a fireball meteor from the excellent Geminid meteor shower [7]
 of 2009. Streaking past familiar stars in the handle of the Big Dipper [8] ,
the trail points back toward the constellation Gemini [9] , off the top of the
view. Both auroras and meteors occur in Earth's upper atmosphere at altitudes
of 100 kilometers or so, but aurora [10]  caused by energetic charged
particles from the magnetosphere [11] , while meteors are trails of cosmic
dust [12] . Nine years after this photograph was taken, toward the end of this
week, the yearly 2018 Geminids [13]  meteor shower will peak again, although
this time their flashes will compete with the din of a half-lit first-quarter
moon [14]  during the first half of the night.

                    Free Download: 2019 APOD Calendar [15]
                      Tomorrow's picture: hand over mars

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [27] (MTU [28] ) & Jerry Bonnell [29]
                                  (UMCP [30] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [31] .
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              A service of: ASD [33]  at NASA [34]  / GSFC [35]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [36]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1812/GeminidAurora_Hansen1_850.jpg
  [3] mailto:big dot hansen at bgnett dot no
  [4] http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/
  [5] http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01dec09.htm
  [6] ap150601.html
  [7] http://spaceweather.com/meteors/ gallery_13dec09_page3.htm
  [8] ap050218.html
  [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(constellation)
  [10] https://www.nasa.gov/content/about-auroras
  [11]
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/multimedia/
magnetosphere-unlabeled.html
  [12] ap990219.html
  [13] https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20181214_10_100
  [14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase
  [15] https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1812/ApodCalendar2019v3_Dave.pdf
  [16] ap181208.html
  [17] archivepix.html
  [18] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [19] lib/aptree.html
  [20] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [21] calendar/allyears.html
  [22] /apod.rss
  [23] lib/edlinks.html
  [24] lib/about_apod.html
  [25] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=181209
  [26] ap181210.html
  [27] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [28] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [29] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [30] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [31] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [32] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [33] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [34] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [35] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [36] http://www.mtu.edu/

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