                        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 15

                                Perseid Rain
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Luo Hongyang

   Explanation: Comet dust rained down on planet Earth last week,
   streaking through dark skies in the annual Perseid meteor shower. The
   featured picture is a composite of many images taken from the same
   location over the peak night of the Perseids. The umbrella was not
   needed as a shield from meteors, since they almost entirely evaporate
   high in the Earth's atmosphere. Many of the component images featured
   individual Perseids, while one image featured the foreground near
   Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, China. The stellar background includes
   the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, appearing nearly vertical, as
   well as the planets Jupiter and Saturn on the left. Although the comet
   dust particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting
   shower meteors clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky
   -- the radiant in the eponymous constellation Perseus. The image
   captured so long an angular field that the curvature of the sky is
   visible in the trajectory of the Perseids.

         Notable APOD Image Submissions: Perseid Meteor Shower 2021
                      Tomorrow's picture: nova visible
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