覆雪森林上空的双子座流星雨

覆雪森林上空的双子座流星雨

Geminid Meteors over a Snowy Forest
Image Credit & Copyright: Jakub Kuřák

Explanation: Meteors have been flowing out from the constellation Gemini. This was expected, as mid-December is the time of the Geminid Meteor Shower. Pictured here, over two dozen meteors were caught in successively added exposures taken over several hours early Saturday morning from a snowy forest in Poland. The fleeting streaks were bright enough to be seen over the din of the nearly full Moon on the upper right. These streaks can all be traced back to a point on the sky called the radiant toward the bright stars Pollux and Castor in the image center. The Geminid meteors started as sand sized bits expelled from asteroid 3200 Phaethon during its elliptical orbit through the inner Solar System.

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow’s picture: comet cliff

覆雪森林上空的双子座流星雨
影像提供与版权: Jakub Kuřák

说明: 流星从不停的从双子座泛流而出。不过，这却是意料中的事，因为每年的12月中旬正是双子座流星雨的极大期。这幅在上星期六清晨时分、摄于波兰 覆雪森林的影像里，就记录了在数小时期间进行连续曝光取像所累积的20多颗流星。即使有右上角接近满相的明月之干扰，这些稍纵即逝的流星痕依然清晰可见。这些流星痕皆可回溯到天空中，位于影像中心的北河二和北河三这2颗亮星附近的辐射点。这些双子座流星的起源，则是法厄同小行星（3200 Phaethon）沿椭圆轨道穿过太阳系内围时，所释出的细小沙粒状碎片。

拼图挑战: 每日天文拼图
明日的图片: comet cliff