APOD: Geminids of the South (2021 Dec 16)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
Post Reply
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5344
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am
Contact:

APOD: Geminids of the South (2021 Dec 16)

Post by APOD Robot » Thu Dec 16, 2021 5:06 am

Image Geminids of the South

Explanation: Fireflies flash along a moonlit countryside in this scene taken on the night of December 13/14 from southern Uruguay, planet Earth. On that night meteors fell in the partly cloudy skies above during the annual Geminid meteor shower. Frames recorded over a period of 1.5 hours are aligned in the composite image made with the camera facing south. That direction was opposite the shower's radiant toward the north and so the Geminid meteor streaks appear to converge at an antiradiant below the southern horizon. The shower's apparent radiant (and antiradiant) is just due to perspective though. As Earth sweeps through the dust trail of mysterious asteroid 3200 Phaethon, the dust grains that create the Geminid shower meteors are really moving along parallel tracks. They enter Earth's atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>

User avatar
orin stepanek
Plutopian
Posts: 8200
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Nebraska

Re: APOD: Geminids of the South (2021 Dec 16)

Post by orin stepanek » Thu Dec 16, 2021 1:14 pm

geminids_2021_fefo_bouvier.jpg
Meteors; falling from the sky! Seems like a lot of these
in Earth's orbital path! :mrgreen:
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Re: APOD: Geminids of the South (2021 Dec 16)

Post by neufer » Thu Dec 16, 2021 3:36 pm







Art Neuendorffer

Post Reply