Explanation:
Dark skies
are favored for viewing meteor showers.
But the annual Perseid Meteor Shower still
entertained skygazers
around the world this week even though the Moon
brightened the night.
At its last quarter phase and rising around midnight on August
13, after the shower's anticipated peak, the Moon
is seen here above rock formations in the
Alborz Mountains
near Firouzkooh, Iran.
With a dramatic desert landscape in the foreground, a
Perseid meteor is streaking
through the moonlit sky between the overexposed Moon
and bright planet Jupiter at the upper right.
A regular celestial event in the northern hemisphere, the
Perseid Meteor Shower is caused by planet Earth's yearly passage
through the dust stream cast off by
comet Swift-Tuttle.
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