                        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.

                                2021 August 8

                               A Perseid Below
            Image Credit: NASA ISS Expedition 28 Crew, Ron Garan

   Explanation: Earthlings typically watch meteor showers by looking up.
   But this remarkable view, captured on August 13, 2011 by astronaut Ron
   Garan, caught a Perseid meteor by looking down. From Garan's
   perspective onboard the International Space Station orbiting at an
   altitude of about 380 kilometers, the Perseid meteors streak below,
   swept up dust left from comet Swift-Tuttle heated to incandescence. The
   glowing comet dust grains are traveling at about 60 kilometers per
   second through the denser atmosphere around 100 kilometers above
   Earth's surface. In this case, the foreshortened meteor flash is right
   of frame center, below the curving limb of the Earth and a layer of
   greenish airglow, just below bright star Arcturus. Want to look up at a
   meteor shower? You're in luck, as the 2021 Perseids meteor shower peaks
   this week. This year, even relatively faint meteors should be visible
   through clear skies from a dark location as the bright Moon will mostly
   absent.

           Notable Perseids Submissions to APOD: 2018, 2019, 2020
                  Tomorrow's picture: perseids from perseus
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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.


