Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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 September 24 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Perseid Outburst at Westmeath Lookout Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Pierre Martin Explanation: [5]This year an outburst of Perseid meteors surprised skywatchers. [6]The reliable meteor shower's peak was predicted for the night of August 12/13. But persistent visual observers in North America were deluged with a [7]startling Perseid shower outburst a day later, with reports of multiple meteors per minute and sometimes per second in the early hours of August 14. The shower radiant is high in a [8]dark night sky in this composite image. It painstakingly registers the trails of 282 Perseids captured during the stunning outburst activity between 0650 UT (02:50am EDT) and 0900 UT (05:00am EDT) on August 14 from Westmeath Lookout, Ontario. Of course the annual Perseid meteor shower is associated with planet Earth's passage through dusty debris from periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The 2021 outburst could have been caused by an unanticipated [9]encounter with the Perseid Filament, a denser ribbon of dust inside the broader debris zone. Tomorrow's picture: The Bubble and the Star Cluster __________________________________________________________________ [10]< | [11]Archive | [12]Submissions | [13]Index | [14]Search | [15]Calendar | [16]RSS | [17]Education | [18]About APOD | [19]Discuss | [20]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [21]Robert Nemiroff ([22]MTU) & [23]Jerry Bonnell ([24]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [25]Specific rights apply. [26]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [27]ASD at [28]NASA / [29]GSFC & [30]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2109/IMG_9365-Aug1314-2021-282-meteors.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.imo.net/members/imo_user/profile/?user_id=8022 5. https://www.meteornews.net/2021/09/12/the-big-surprise-a-late-perseid-outburst/ 6. https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/2021/07/30/the-perseids-are-on-the-rise/ 7. http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/cbet/005000/CBET005016.txt 8. https://pmartin.smugmug.com/Astronomy/20211408-Perseids-at-Westmeath-Lookout-Ontario/ 9. https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2021/08/18/perseid-meteor-outburst-2/ 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210923.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 14. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 19. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210924 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210925.html 21. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 23. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 24. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 26. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 27. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 28. https://www.nasa.gov/ 29. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 30. http://www.mtu.edu/