                APOD: 2017 December 25 - Fireball in the Arctic

                         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.

                               2017 December 25
                                      [2]
                            Fireball in the Arctic
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Yang Sutie [3]

Explanation: Something very bright suddenly lit up the arctic -- what was it?
The original idea was to take a series of aurora [4] images that could be made
into a time-lapse video [5] . But when night suddenly turned into day, the
astrophotographer quickly realized that he was seeing something even more
spectacular. Moving through the sky -- in front of the Big Dipper [6]  no less
-- was a Geminid meteor [7] so bright it could be called a fireball [8] . The
meteor brightened and flashed for several seconds as it went. By a stroke of
good fortune, the aurora camera was able to capture the whole track. Taken the
night after the Geminids Meteor Shower [9] peaked, the astrophotographer's
location was near Lovozero Lake [10]  in Murmansk [11] , Russia [12] , just
north of the Arctic Circle [13] .

         Free APOD Lectures: January 5 in NYC & January 9 in DC [14]
                 Tomorrow's picture: grand spiral galaxy [15]

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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/1712/ArcticGeminid_Sutie_3500.jpg
  [3] 6596787 @at@ qq .dot. com
  [4] https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/aurora/en/
  [5] ap130609.html
  [6] ap171121.html
  [7]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2017/
heads-up-earthlings-the-geminids-are-here.html
  [8] ap081125.html
  [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminids
  [10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK1iYWxg-ww
  [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murmansk
  [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia
  [13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Circle
  [14] http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=37750
  [15] ap171226.html
  [16] ap171224.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=171225
  [26] ap171226.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/
