This
remarkable view captured by astronaut Ron Garan looks down on a Perseid meteor. From Garan's
perspective onboard the
International Space Station orbiting at an altitude of about 380 kilometers, the Perseid meteors streak below,
swept up dust left from comet Swift-Tuttle heated to incandescence. The
glowing comet dust grains are traveling at about 60 kilometers per
second through the denser atmosphere around 100 kilometers above Earth's surface. In this case, the foreshortened meteor flash is right of frame center, below the curving limb of the Earth and a layer of greenish airglow.
A larger version (4256 x 2832, resolution 240) with more info is at
APOD.
More at
Talking Points Memo.
