by APOD Robot » Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:56 am
Southern Geminids
Explanation: At least 34 meteors are included in
this composite image as they rain through Australian skies during the annual
Geminid Meteor shower. Dust particles strung out along the orbit of extinct comet
Phaethon vaporize when they plow through planet Earth's atmosphere causing the impressive display. Although the particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting streaks clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky near Gemini's twin stars
Castor and Pollux at the lower right. The radiant effect is due to
perspective, as the parallel tracks appear to converge at a distance. Taken over a period of 2 hours on the morning of December 14, short exposures recording individual meteor
streaks were combined with a single long exposure to show the
background stars, with Sirius at the top, and the constellation Orion at left. Faint stars and nebulae of the
Milky Way track through the center of the frame. Near the radiant point, an extra star in Gemini is actually the flash of a meteor seen almost head-on.
[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091218.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_091218.jpg[/img] [size=150]Southern Geminids[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] At least 34 meteors are included in [url=http://philhart.com/content/geminid-meteor-shower]this composite image[/url] as they rain through Australian skies during the annual [url=http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_13dec09_page5.htm]Geminid Meteor shower[/url]. Dust particles strung out along the orbit of extinct comet [url=http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/asteroids/asteroid_3200_phaethon.html&edu=high]Phaethon[/url] vaporize when they plow through planet Earth's atmosphere causing the impressive display. Although the particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting streaks clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky near Gemini's twin stars [url=http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/gemini.html]Castor and Pollux[/url] at the lower right. The radiant effect is due to [url=http://mathforum.org/sum95/math_and/perspective/perspect.html]perspective, as the parallel tracks[/url] appear to converge at a distance. Taken over a period of 2 hours on the morning of December 14, short exposures recording individual meteor [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091120.html]streaks[/url] were combined with a single long exposure to show the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091212.html]background stars[/url], with Sirius at the top, and the constellation Orion at left. Faint stars and nebulae of the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090613.html]Milky Way track[/url] through the center of the frame. Near the radiant point, an extra star in Gemini is actually the flash of a meteor seen almost head-on.
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