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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Geminid Meteors over a Snowy Forest
NASA ^ | 15 Dec, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Jakub Kuřák

Posted on 12/15/2024 12:16:19 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Meteors have been flowing out from the constellation Gemini. This was expected, as mid-December is the time of the Geminid Meteor Shower. Pictured here, over two dozen meteors were caught in successively added exposures taken over several hours early Saturday morning from a snowy forest in Poland. The fleeting streaks were bright enough to be seen over the din of the nearly full Moon on the upper right. These streaks can all be traced back to a point on the sky called the radiant toward the bright stars Pollux and Castor in the image center. The Geminid meteors started as sand sized bits expelled from asteroid 3200 Phaethon during its elliptical orbit through the inner Solar System.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa
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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 12/15/2024 12:16:19 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 12/15/2024 12:17:21 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

3 posted on 12/15/2024 12:17:43 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

4 posted on 12/15/2024 12:18:41 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

A nice, quiet winter’s evening with meteors, stars, and the Moon…


5 posted on 12/15/2024 1:39:29 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: telescope115

Wife and I got up at 2:30 AM bundled up and went outside. It was cold and the moon was full. We live near downtown Pittsburgh and the sky was bright with city lights.

But we saw and counted 6 meteors, fireballs, flashing in the east and northeasst. We came in about 4:30 and went back to sleep.

I’m glad we did it.


6 posted on 12/15/2024 7:28:17 PM PST by FroggyTheGremlim (Hail to Pitt!)
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