Every summer about this time of year, the Earth passes through the
orbital path of the Swift-Tuttle comet. That might sound a little
alarming, but don’t worry—the closest we’re likely to come to the comet
itself will be 1 million miles, and astronomers calculate that won’t be
until 3044. (Still, a near miss by cosmic standards.) But bits and
pieces that have broken off from the tail of the comet do collide with
the Earth’s atmosphere, creating one of the most reliable and
spectacular star shows of the year: the Perseid meteor shower, so called
because the meteors, as they streak across the sky, seem to originate
from the constellation Perseus.
This year the shower was intense, with as many as 100 separate
shooting stars—cosmic matter burning up in the Earth’s
atmosphere—tearing across the sky per minute. (An average meteor shower
might have as few as one shooting stars per minute.) The Perseid meteor
shower has been observed for some 2,000 years. Catholics used to call
the shower the “tears of St. Lawrence,” since the martyred saint’s feast
day of Aug. 10 often coincided with the show.
2013′s meteor shower has been particularly impressive because the
lunar calendar ensured that the moon had all but disappeared from the
sky during peak viewing hours. Of course, those of us who live in cities
and near other sources of light pollution won’t be able to make out the
full power of the Perseid shower—assuming you can stay up late enough
to see it. But the images that follow give you a taste of what you might
be missing.
5 comments:
The universe is not created by god, it's science, please don't ignore the facts.
But, how about God has created science.
Did the chicken or the egg come first? Hahaha…
the guy upstair get bored once in a while that why he causes suffering, catastrophe and disaster to people; this create a good drama for him to see from above.
People create the concept of what god is. So people create god!
មីចោរមានពុតDemocrat ទំពាំងស្នងឫស្សី យួន,
វាកំពុងតែ នាំបងប្អូនខ្មែរអ្នកស្នេហាជាតិ
អោយដើរតាមគន្លងអាចម៍ អាយួនកុម្មុយនីស្ត
HO CHI MINH !!!!!
-------------------------------
ខ្មែរ............គឺអង្គរវត្ត
ឫស្សី...........គឺយួនយៀកកុង
Democrat.......អង្គរទុយ
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