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 August 17

                        Perseids Around the Milky Way
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Jingyi Zhang

   Explanation: Why would meteor trails appear curved? The arcing effect
   arises only because the image artificially compresses (nearly) the
   whole sky into a rectangle. The meteors are from the Perseid Meteor
   Shower that peaked last week. The featured multi-frame image combines
   not only different directions from the 360 projection, but different
   times when bright Perseid meteors momentarily streaked across the sky.
   All Perseid meteors can be traced back to the constellation Perseus
   toward the lower left, even the seemingly curved (but really straight)
   meteor trails. Although Perseids always point back to their Perseus
   radiant, they can appear almost anywhere on the sky. The image was
   taken from Inner Mongolia, China, where grasslands meet sand dunes.
   Many treasures also visible in the busy night sky including the central
   arch of our Milky Way Galaxy, the planets Saturn and Jupiter toward the
   right, colorful airglow on the central left, and some relatively nearby
   Earthly clouds. The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks every August.

           Perseid Meteor Shower: Notable images submitted to APOD
                 Tomorrow's picture: solar system prototype
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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