Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

                              2021 September 24
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                    Perseid Outburst at Westmeath Lookout
                Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Pierre Martin

   Explanation: [5]This year an outburst of Perseid meteors surprised
   skywatchers. [6]The reliable meteor shower's peak was predicted for the
   night of August 12/13. But persistent visual observers in North America
   were deluged with a [7]startling Perseid shower outburst a day later,
   with reports of multiple meteors per minute and sometimes per second in
   the early hours of August 14. The shower radiant is high in a [8]dark
   night sky in this composite image. It painstakingly registers the
   trails of 282 Perseids captured during the stunning outburst activity
   between 0650 UT (02:50am EDT) and 0900 UT (05:00am EDT) on August 14
   from Westmeath Lookout, Ontario. Of course the annual Perseid meteor
   shower is associated with planet Earth's passage through dusty debris
   from periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The 2021 outburst could have
   been caused by an unanticipated [9]encounter with the Perseid Filament,
   a denser ribbon of dust inside the broader debris zone.

             Tomorrow's picture: The Bubble and the Star Cluster
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [21]Robert Nemiroff ([22]MTU) & [23]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([24]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [25]Specific rights apply.
              [26]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [27]ASD at [28]NASA / [29]GSFC
                           & [30]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2109/IMG_9365-Aug1314-2021-282-meteors.jpg
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. https://www.imo.net/members/imo_user/profile/?user_id=8022
   5. https://www.meteornews.net/2021/09/12/the-big-surprise-a-late-perseid-outburst/
   6. https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/2021/07/30/the-perseids-are-on-the-rise/
   7. http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/cbet/005000/CBET005016.txt
   8. https://pmartin.smugmug.com/Astronomy/20211408-Perseids-at-Westmeath-Lookout-Ontario/
   9. https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2021/08/18/perseid-meteor-outburst-2/
  10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210923.html
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  14. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  19. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210924
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210925.html
  21. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  23. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  24. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  26. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  27. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  28. https://www.nasa.gov/
  29. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  30. http://www.mtu.edu/