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 September 22
                                      [2]
                         Window Seat over Hudson Bay
                Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Ralf Rohner [4]

Explanation: On the August 18 night flight from San Francisco to Zurich, a
window seat offered this tantalizing view when curtains of light draped a
colorful glow [5]  across the sky over Hudson Bay. Constructed by digitally
stacking six short exposures made with a hand held camera, the scene records
the shimmering aurora borealis or northern lights just as the approaching high
altitude sunrise illuminated the northeastern horizon. It also caught the
flash of a Perseid [6]  meteor streaking beneath the handle stars of the Big
Dipper of the north. [7] A few days past the meteor shower's peak, its trail
still points across the sky toward Perseus. Beautiful aurorae and shower
meteors both occur in Earth's upper atmosphere at altitudes of [8] 100
kilometers or so, far above commercial airline fights. The aurora [9]  are
caused by energetic charged particles from the magnetosphere, while meteors
are trails of comet dust [10] .

                     Tomorrow's picture: equinox analemma

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [22] (MTU [23] ) & Jerry Bonnell [24]
                                  (UMCP [25] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [26] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [27]
              A service of: ASD [28]  at NASA [29]  / GSFC [30]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [31]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1809/CurtainsofLightRohner.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] https://ralf-rohner.pixels.com/
  [5] https://www.flickr.com/photos/skypointer2000/...
  [6] ap180908.html
  [7] ap160331.html
  [8] ap160811.html
  [9] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/ne...
aurora-index.html
  [10] apap160820.html.html
  [11] ap180921.html
  [12] archivepix.html
  [13] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [14] lib/aptree.html
  [15] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [16] calendar/allyears.html
  [17] /apod.rss
  [18] lib/edlinks.html
  [19] lib/about_apod.html
  [20] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [21] ap180923.html
  [22] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [23] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [24] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [25] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [26] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [27] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [28] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [29] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [31] http://www.mtu.edu/

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