Skip to main content

Posted by Specola

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured is a Quadrantids meteor captured by camera over Missouri, USA, early this month that was not only impressively bright, but colorful. The radiant grit, likely cast off by asteroid 2003 EH1, blazed a path across Earth's atmosphere. Colors in meteors usually originate from ionized elements released as the meteor disintegrates, with blue-green typically originating from magnesium, calcium radiating violet, and nickel glowing green. Red, however, typically originates from energized nitrogen and oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. This bright meteoric fireball was gone in a flash -- less than a second -- but it left a wind-blown ionization trail that remained visible for several minutes. APOD is available via Facebook: in English, Catalan and Portuguese

Photo by Frank Kuszaj

Click the Image to learn more about us

Read more from Pepe's Painting LLC

Giving Kids in Need the Chance to Read
  Non-profit organization - Seattle, WA

Snohomish, Skagit and Island County

Hunger impacts all of us | 360-435-1631

FLO JAPANESE RESTAURANT
425-453-4005 - 1150 106th Ave NE Bellevue, WA 98004