英仙流星雨大爆发
2021年9月24日
Perseid Outburst at Westmeath Lookout
Image Credit & Copyright: Pierre Martin
Explanation: This year an outburst of Perseid meteors surprised skywatchers. The reliable meteor shower’s peak was predicted for the night of August 12/13. But persistent visual observers in North America were deluged with a startling Perseid shower outburst a day later, with reports of multiple meteors per minute and sometimes per second in the early hours of August 14. The shower radiant is high in a dark night sky in this composite image. It painstakingly registers the trails of 282 Perseids captured during the stunning outburst activity between 0650 UT (02:50am EDT) and 0900 UT (05:00am EDT) on August 14 from Westmeath Lookout, Ontario. Of course the annual Perseid meteor shower is associated with planet Earth’s passage through dusty debris from periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The 2021 outburst could have been caused by an unanticipated encounter with the Perseid Filament, a denser ribbon of dust inside the broader debris zone.
Tomorrow’s picture: The Bubble and the Star Cluster
英仙流星雨大爆发
影像提供与版权: Pierre Martin
说明: 今年的英仙流星雨，发生出乎观星者预期的大爆发。这群流星雨极大期的预报通常很准，而今年预测会落在8月12/13日那晚。不过，部分很执着的北美地区观测者，却在极大期1天后的8月14日清晨，见到令他们惊讶不已的英仙流星雨大爆发，每分钟（有时甚至每秒）可看到数颗流星。在这幅摄于加拿大安大略省韦斯特米斯观景台的组合影像里，这群流星雨的辐射点高悬在幽暗的夜空中，并在世界时0650（美东夏令时间02:50am）到0900（05:00am EDT）的大爆发期间，巨细靡遗的记录到282颗英仙流星。每年复现的英仙流星雨，起源是地球穿过周期彗星史威福-塔托（109P/Swift-Tuttle）的尘埃碎片。而2021年的大爆发，可能是地球在宽广的碎片区里，意外的遇到一道较致密的英仙尘埃带。