                        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.

                              2023 December 28

                           Jupiter and the Geminid
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Gaurav Singh

   Explanation: For a brief moment, this brilliant fireball meteor
   outshone Jupiter in planet Earth's night. The serendipitous image was
   captured while hunting meteors under cold Canadian skies with a camera
   in timelapse mode on December 14, near the peak of the Geminid meteor
   shower. The Geminid meteor shower, asteroid 3200 Phaethon's annual
   gift, always arrives in December. Dust shed along the orbit of the
   mysterious asteroid causes the meteor streaks, as the vaporizing grains
   plow through our fair planet's upper atmosphere at 22 kilometers per
   second. Of course Geminid shower meteors appear to radiate from a point
   in the constellation of the Twins. That's below and left of this frame.
   With bright Jupiter on the right, also in the December night skyview
   are the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters.

                  Tomorrow's picture: Shakespeare in space
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