|
Credit & Copyright: Ralf Rohner
Explanation:
On the August 18 night flight from San Francisco to Zurich,
a window seat offered this tantalizing view when
curtains
of light draped a colorful glow across the sky over Hudson Bay.
Constructed by digitally stacking six short exposures made with a
hand held camera, the scene records the shimmering aurora borealis
or northern lights
just as the approaching high altitude sunrise illuminated
the northeastern horizon.
It also caught
the flash of a Perseid meteor
streaking beneath the handle stars of the Big Dipper
of the north.
A few days past the meteor shower's peak, its trail still points
across the sky toward Perseus.
Beautiful aurorae and shower meteors both occur in
Earth's upper atmosphere
at altitudes of
100 kilometers or so, far above commercial airline fights.
The aurora are caused by energetic charged particles
from the magnetosphere, while meteors are trails of
comet dust.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day