Stunning Lyrids Over Earth at Night (NASA, International Space Station, 04/21-22/12)

On the night of April 21, the 2012 Lyrid meteor shower peaked in the skies over Earth. While NASA allsky cameras were looking up at the night skies, astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station trained his video camera on Earth below. Footage from that night is now revealing breathtaking images of Earth at night with meteors ablating -- or burning up -- in the atmosphere.

The downlinked image to the right shows a very probable Lyrid in a six-second exposure, taken on April 22, 2012 at 5:34:22 UT. The International Space Station position was over 88.5 W, 19.9 N at an altitude of 392 km. NASA astronomer Bill Cooke mapped the meteor to the star field -- seen in this annotated image -- and confirmed that the meteor originated from the Lyrid radiant.

The image is rotated so that the north celestial pole (NCP) is roughly in the up direction. The lights of Florida are clearly visible to the right of the meteor. Cuba, the Florida Keys and the eastern Gulf Coast shoreline are also visible. Some brilliant flashes of lightning are also prevalent in the image.

Image credit: NASA/JSC/Don Pettit

Original image/read the blog:
www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/watchtheskies/ly... ( www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/watchtheskies/ly... )

More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html ( www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html )

There's a Flickr group about Space Station Research. Please feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/ ( www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/ )

View more than 400 photos like this in the "NASA Earth Images" Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/ ( www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/ )

_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin... ( www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin... )

Taken in: United States / Florida / Key West (show map)

Taken on: April 20, 2024

Tags:

Lyrid

meteor shower

station science

station research

nasa

Crew Earth Observation

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Sets appears in: • Views from the International Space Station

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