Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

                               2020 January 20

                      Quadrantid Meteors through Orion
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek

   Explanation: Why are these meteor trails nearly parallel? Because they
   were all shed by the same space rock and so can be traced back to the
   same direction on the sky: the radiant of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower.
   This direction used to be toward the old constellation of Quadrans
   Muralis, hence the name Quadrantids, but when the International
   Astronomical Union formulated its list of modern constellations in
   1922, this constellation did not make the list. Even though the meteors
   are now considered to originate from the recognized constellation of
   Bootes, the old name stuck. Regardless of the designation, every
   January the Earth moves through a dust stream and bits of this dust
   glow as meteors as they heat up in Earth's atmosphere. The featured
   image composite was taken on January 4 with a picturesque snowy
   Slovakian landscape in the foreground, and a deep-exposure sky
   prominently featuring the constellation Orion in the background. The
   red star Betelgeuse appears unusually dim -- its fading over the past
   few months is being tracked by astronomers.

                       Teachers: APOD in the Classroom
                       Tomorrow's picture: sun sounds
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

--- hpt/lnx 1.9.0