Image: Looking Down on a Shooting Star

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Description: This astronaut photograph, taken from the International Space Station while over China (approximately 400 kilometres to the north-west of Beijing), provides the unusual perspective of looking down on a meteor as it passes through the atmosphere. Green and yellow airglow appears in thin layers above the limb of the Earth, extending from image left to the upper right. Atoms and molecules above 50 kilometers in the atmosphere are excited by sunlight during the day, and then release this energy at night, producing primarily green light that is observable from orbit. Part of a space station solar panel is visible at image upper right; behind the panel, a bright region indicates the Sun low on the horizon.
Title: Looking Down on a Shooting Star
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
Author: ISS Expedition 28 crew
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No

Image usage

The following page links to this image:

Meteor

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