2025年12月18日
Jupiter and the Meteors from Gemini
Image Credit & Copyright: David Cruz
Explanation: Jupiter, the Solar System’s ruling gas giant, is the brightest celestial beacon at the center of this composite night skyscape. The scene was constructed by selecting the 40 exposures containing meteors from about 500 exposures made on the nights of December 13 and 14, near peak activity for this year’s annual Geminid meteor shower. With each selected exposure registered in the night sky above Alentejo, Portugal, planet Earth, it does look like the meteors are streaming away from Jupiter. But the apparent radiant of the Geminid meteors is actually closer to bright star Castor, in the shower’s eponymous constellation Gemini. In this frame that’s just a little above and left of the Solar System’s most massive planet. Still, the parent body of Geminid meteors is known to be rocky, near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon. And the orbit of Phaethon itself is influenced by the gravitational attraction exerted by massive Jupiter, in concert with planets of the inner Solar System.
Tomorrow’s picture: cathedrals on the moon
木星与双子座流星雨
影像提供与版权: David Cruz
说明: 木星，这颗太阳系中的巨大气体行星，是这幅合成夜空景观中最亮的天体。这张照片是从12月13日和14日晚上拍摄的约500张曝光照片中，选取含有流星的40张照片所合成，这两晚正值今年度的双子座流星雨极大期。在每一张拍摄于在葡萄牙阿连特茹（Alentejo）上空的选定曝光中，地球上的夜空看起来就像流星从木星流出。然而，双子座流星的视辐射点实际上更接近位于双子座的明亮恒星北河二。在这张图中，北河二它位于太阳系中最巨大行星的左上方。不过，双子座流星雨的母体已知是岩石质的近地小行星3200 法厄同（Phaethon）。而法厄同本身的轨道受到巨大木星重力的影响，同时也受内太阳系的行星共同作用。
明日的图片: cathedrals on the moon
