¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 August 17 [2]See Explanation. Moving the cursor over the image will bring up an annotated version. Clicking on the image will bring up the highest resolution version available. Perseids Around the Milky Way Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Jingyi Zhang Explanation: Why would meteor trails appear curved? The arcing effect arises only because the image [4]artificially compresses (nearly) the whole sky [5]into a rectangle. The meteors are from the [6]Perseid Meteor Shower that peaked last week. The featured multi-frame image combines not only different directions from the 360 projection, but different times when [7]bright Perseid meteors momentarily streaked across the sky. All [8]Perseid meteors can be traced back to the [9]constellation Perseus toward the lower left, even the seemingly curved (but really straight) [10]meteor trails. Although Perseids always point back to their [11]Perseus radiant, they can appear almost anywhere on the sky. The image was taken from [12]Inner Mongolia, [13]China, where [14]grasslands meet [15]sand dunes. Many treasures also visible in the busy night sky including the [16]central arch of our [17]Milky Way Galaxy, the planets [18]Saturn and Jupiter toward the right, [19]colorful airglow on the central left, and some relatively nearby Earthly clouds. The Perseid [20]Meteor Shower peaks every August. Perseid Meteor Shower: [21]Notable images submitted to APOD Tomorrow's picture: solar system prototype __________________________________________________________________ [22]< | [23]Archive | [24]Submissions | [25]Index | [26]Search | [27]Calendar | [28]RSS | [29]Education | [30]About APOD | [31]Discuss | [32]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [33]Robert Nemiroff ([34]MTU) & [35]Jerry Bonnell ([36]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [37]Specific rights apply. [38]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [39]ASD at [40]NASA / [41]GSFC & [42]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2008/PerseidBridge_Zhang_4032.jpg 3. mailto:jingyi.dot.tia.dot.zhang@at@gmail.d.o.t.com 4. https://wiki.panotools.org/Equirectangular_Projection 5. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/12/09/08/21997238-7769165-image-m-18_1575879621351.jpg 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180812.html 8. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/perseids/in-depth/ 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_(constellation) 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190430.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200810.html 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_Mongolia 13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China 14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O27z3G5KOM 15. https://youtu.be/6dorbyeU2B0?t=21 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170429.html 17. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/285/the-milky-way-galaxy/ 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200813.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180306.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180808.html 21. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2859552167482317 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200816.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 31. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200817 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200818.html 33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 35. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 36. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 38. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 39. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 40. https://www.nasa.gov/ 41. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 42. http://www.mtu.edu/