NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Perseid Power

Enjoying the bright Moon's absence from early morning skies, observers around the world reported lovely displays during this year's Perseid meteor shower, which peaked August 11 and 12. This bright and colorful fireball meteor flashed through skies over Japan in the early morning hours of August 12. Ending at the upper right, the meteor's trail points down and to the left, back to the shower's radiant point between the constellations of Perseus and Cassiopeia, seen here just above the tower structure in the foreground. The Pleiades star cluster is also visible well below the meteor's trail.

Perseid shower meteors can be traced to particles of dust from the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet dust impacts the atmosphere at speeds of around 60 kilometers per second.

From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Credit & Copyright: Katsuhiro Mouri & Shuji Kobayashi (Nagoya City Science Museum / Planetarium)

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