Friday, December 13: fall "star rain"

"Star rain," or meteor showers, occasionally visible on the Ground, look like they "fall" from a single point. In a sense it is. When our planet, following the direction of its orbit, crosses the trail of dust particles produced by any celestial body, all appearing meteors sent to us by the vector of its movement, of a particular area, called the radiant.

This happens every year, in December you can watch the meteor shower Geminids.

Taken near one of the mountain peaks at the Observatory of Las Campanas in Chile, in front of you, "star rain", captured with a four-hour exposure.

In the foreground the 2.5-meter Du Pont telescope and meter телескопSWOPE. Heavens for shooting stars decorate the bright spot is Jupiter. Also clearly visible just to the left of the Central line of the milky Way, and the left flaunts the Orion nebula pink.

As dust swept out of the orbit of asteroid 3200 Phaethon, meteors geminid burst into earth's atmosphere at a speed of 22 kilometers per second.

The greatest activity of the Geminids reached tonight, 13 to 14 December — don't miss it!

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»