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Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
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Image Credit & Copyright:
Josh Dury
What are those curved arcs in the sky? Meteors -- specifically, meteors from this year'sPerseid meteor shower. Over the past few weeks, after the sky darkened, many images ofPerseid meteorswere captured separately and merged into a single frame, taken earlier. Although themeteors all traveledon straight paths, these paths appear slightly curved by the wide-angle lens of the capturing camera. The meteorstreakscan all be traced back to a single point on the sky called theradiant, here just off the top of the frame in theconstellation of Perseus. The same camera took a deep image of the background sky that brought up thecentral bandof ourMilky Way galaxyrunning nearly vertically through thefeatured image's center. The limestone arch in the foreground inDorset,Englandis known asDurdle Door, a name thought to survive from a thousand years ago.
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Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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