A Meteor Over the Anza Borrego Desert

Astronomy Picture of the Day · 1999-08-11 · NASA (public domain)

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A Meteor Over the Anza Borrego Desert — APOD for 1999-08-11

Meteors will be flashing across your skies over the next two nights . Specifically, the Perseid Meteor Shower should be at its best just before each morning's dawn. Observers at dark locations might see as much as a meteor a minute. Perseid meteors are bits of dirt that blew off Comet Swift-Tuttle and that burn up as they fall to Earth. Exciting expectations of a new filament in the Perseids might be tested this year. Pictured above is a meteor from the most active meteor shower of last year: the Leonids . Pictured above , a Leonid meteor was caught in November outshining even the brightest stars over the Anza-Borrego Desert in California. The Leonids will peak again this November and might provide an ever better show.

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 1999-08-11 — image & explanation courtesy of NASA (public domain), mirrored at Tukuk-OS for reading and search convenience.

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