保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2022年8月11日 Perseids and MAGIC Image Credit & Copyright: Urs Leutenegger Explanation: On August 11, 2021 a multi-mirror, 17 meter-diameter MAGIC telescope reflected this starry night sky from the Roque de los Muchachos European Northern Observatory on the Canary Island of La Palma. MAGIC stands for Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov. The telescope...
2022年8月7日 Meteor before Galaxy Image Credit & Copyright: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich Explanation: What’s that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy in 2016, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, a small pebble from deep space crossed right in front of our Milky Way Galaxy’s far-dis...
2021年12月20日 The Comet and the Fireball Image Credit & Copyright: Cory Poole Explanation: This picture was supposed to feature a comet. Specifically, a series of images of the brightest comet of 2021 were being captured: Comet Leonard. But the universe had other plans. Within a fraction of a second, a meteor so bright it could be called a fireball streak...
2021年10月12日 Fireball over Lake Louise Image Credit & Copyright: Hao Qin Explanation: What makes a meteor a fireball? First of all, everyone agrees that a fireball is an exceptionally bright meteor. Past that, the International Astronomical Union defines a fireball as a meteor brighter than apparent magnitude -4, which corresponds (roughly) to being brig...
2021年8月20日 Three Perseid Nights Image Credit & Copyright: Balint Lengyel Explanation: Frames from a camera that spent three moonless nights under the stars create this composite night skyscape. They were recorded during August 11-13 while planet Earth was sweeping through the dusty trail of comet Swift-Tuttle. One long exposure, untracked for the foregr...
2021年8月19日 Bright Meteor, Starry Sky Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva) Explanation: Plowing through Earth’s atmosphere at 60 kilometers per second, this bright perseid meteor streaks along a starry Milky Way. Captured in dark Portugal skies on August 12, it moves right to left through the frame. Its colorful trail sta...
2021年8月14日 Island Universe, Cosmic Sand Image Credit & Copyright: Marzena Rogozinska Explanation: Stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy are scattered through this eye-catching field of view. From the early hours after midnight on August 13, the 30 second exposure of the night sky over Busko-Zdroj, Poland records the colorful and bright trail of a Perseid me...
2021年05月12日 A Meteor and the Gegenschein Image Credit: J.C. Casado, StarryEarth, EELabs, TWAN Explanation: Is the night sky darkest in the direction opposite the Sun? No. In fact, a rarely discernable faint glow known as the gegenschein (German for “counter glow”) can be seen 180 degrees around from the Sun in an extremely dark sky. The gegensche...
2021年02月02日 A Colorful Quadrantid Meteor Image Credit & Copyright: Frank Kuszaj Explanation: Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured is a Quadrantids meteor captured by camera over Missouri, USA, early this month that was not only impressively bright, but colorful. The radiant grit, li...
2020年12月14日 Capsule Returns from Asteroid Ryugu Video Credit: JAXA, Hayabusa2 Explanation: The streak across the sky is a capsule returning from an asteroid. It returned earlier this month from the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu carrying small rocks and dust from its surface. The canister was released by its mothership, Japan’s Hayabusa2, a mission t...