                        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 November 16

                            Geminids from Gemini
                     Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Jin

   Explanation: Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of
   direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of
   Gemini. That is why the major meteor shower in December is known as the
   Geminids -- because shower meteors all appear to come from a radiant
   toward Gemini. Three dimensionally, however, sand-sized debris expelled
   from the unusual asteroid 3200 Phaethon follows a well-defined orbit
   about our Sun, and the part of the orbit that approaches Earth is
   superposed in front of the constellation of Gemini. Therefore, when
   Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris appears
   in Gemini. Featured here, a composite of many images taken during the
   2020 Geminids meteor shower shows over 200 bright meteorss that
   streaked through the sky during the night December 14. The best meteor
   shower in November, the Leonids, peaks tonight and tomorrow.
   Unfortunately, this year, dim meteors during the early-morning peak
   will be hard to see against a sky lit by a bright gibbous moon. Still,
   a few bright Leonid meteors should be visible each hour.

                  Tomorrow's picture: double galaxy puzzler
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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