Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 August 16
                                      [2]
                              Parker vs Perseid
Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Derek Demeter [4] (Emil Buehler Planetarium [5]
                                      )

Explanation: The brief flash of a bright Perseid meteor streaks across the
upper right in this composited series of exposures made early Sunday morning
near the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Set up about two miles [6]
from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the
photographer also captured the four minute long trail of a Delta IV Heavy
rocket carrying the Parker Solar Probe [7]  into the dark morning sky. Perseid
meteors aren't slow. The grains of dust [8] from periodic comet Swift-Tuttle
vaporize as they plow through Earth's upper atmosphere at about 60 kilometers
per second (133,000 mph). On its way [9] to seven gravity-assist flybys of
Venus over its seven year mission, the Parker Solar Probe's closest approach
to the Sun will steadily decrease, finally reaching a distance of 6.1 million
kilometers (3.8 million miles). That's about 1/8 the distance between Mercury
and the Sun, and within the solar corona [10] , the Sun's tenuous outer
atmosphere. By then it will be traveling roughly 190 kilometers per second
(430,000 mph) with respect to the Sun, a record for fastest spacecraft from
planet Earth.

                  Gallery: Perseid meteor shower 2018 [11]
                       Tomorrow's picture: a slow train

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [23] (MTU [24] ) & Jerry Bonnell [25]
                                  (UMCP [26] )
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1808/parkerlaunchperseids.apodDemeter.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] https://500px.com/demeterderek
  [5] https://www.seminolestate.edu/planet/
  [6] https://www.facebook.com/seminoleplanet/photo...
a.264983157311.151633.143359672311/10155445940222312/?type=3&theater
  [7] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/
nasa-ula-launch-parker-solar-probe-on-historic-journey-to-touch-sun
  [8] ap180808.html
  [9] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/
parker-solar-probe-preview.html
  [10] ap170823.html
  [11]
https://www.facebook.com/APOD.Sky/photos/
a.1543789772391903.1073741849.230002920437268/1545121865592027/
  [12] ap180815.html
  [13] archivepix.html
  [14] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [15] lib/aptree.html
  [16] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [17] calendar/allyears.html
  [18] /apod.rss
  [19] lib/edlinks.html
  [20] lib/about_apod.html
  [21] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [22] ap180817.html
  [23] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [25] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [26] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [27] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [28] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [29] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [31] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [32] http://www.mtu.edu/

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