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 December 15
                                      [2]
                            Geminids and Friends
    Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Daniel Lopez (El Cielo de Canarias [4] )

Explanation: From a radiant [5] in the constellation of the Twins, the annual
Geminid meteor shower [6] rained down on our fair planet this week. This
beautiful skyscape collects about 70 of Gemini's lovely shooting stars in a
digital composition made from multiple exposures. The exposures were taken
over a six hour period near the shower's peak. The camera was tracking [7] the
dark predawn sky on December 14 from Teide National Park on the Canary Island
Tenerife. Though Gemini lies off the top left of the frame, the Milky Way
sweeps through the starry background. Sharing the sky below and left of center
are recognizable stars and nebulosities [8]  of Orion. A yellowish Aldebaran
[9] and the Hyades are toward the right along with the Pleiades star cluster.
Also a welcome visitor to this night sky, the faint green coma of Comet 46P
Wirtanen [10] , closest to Earth this weekend, lies below the Pleiades stars.
Dust swept up from the orbit of active asteroid [11] 3200 Phaethon [12] ,
Gemini's meteors enter Earth's atmosphere [13]  traveling at about 35
kilometers per second.

                        Tomorrow's picture: near miss

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [25] (MTU [26] ) & Jerry Bonnell [27]
                                  (UMCP [28] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [29] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [30]
              A service of: ASD [31]  at NASA [32]  / GSFC [33]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [34]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1812/Geminids-DLopez.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://www.elcielodecanarias.com/
  [5] ap151213.html
  [6] https://www.google.com/doodles/ the-geminid-meteor-shower-2018
  [7] image/1812/IMG_8543.jpg
  [8] ap090411.html
  [9] ap111117.html
  [10] ap181207.html
  [11] http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.5220
  [12] http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.2710
  [13] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/sc...
atmosphere-layers2.html
  [14] ap181214.html
  [15] archivepix.html
  [16] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [17] lib/aptree.html
  [18] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [19] calendar/allyears.html
  [20] /apod.rss
  [21] lib/edlinks.html
  [22] lib/about_apod.html
  [23] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [24] ap181216.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [26] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [27] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [28] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [29] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [31] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [32] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [33] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [34] http://www.mtu.edu/

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