Perseid Meteors over Turkey

Astronomy Picture of the Day · 2017-08-01 · NASA (public domain)

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Perseid Meteors over Turkey — APOD for 2017-08-01

The Perseid Meteor Shower, usually the best meteor shower of the year, will peak late next week. A person watching a clear sky from a dark location might see a bright meteor every minute. These meteors are actually specks of rock that have broken off Comet Swift-Tuttle and continued to orbit the Sun until they vaporize in Earth's atmosphere . The featured composite image shows a outburst of Perseids as they appeared over Turkey during last year's meteor shower . Enough meteors were captured to trace the shower's radiant back to the constellation of Perseus on the far left. The tail-end of the Perseids will still be going during the total solar eclipse on August 21 , creating a rare opportunity for some lucky astrophotographers to image a Perseid meteor during the day. Memorable APOD: Meteor Showers

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2017-08-01 — image & explanation courtesy of NASA (public domain), mirrored at Tukuk-OS for reading and search convenience.

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