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A meteor, a comet and a photogenic nebula have all been captured in this single image. The closest and most fleeting meteor is the meteor at the top right – it was visible for less than a second. The meteor, which disintegrated in the atmosphere of the Earth, was probably a small piece of the comet 21P / Giacobini-Zinner's core, as if by chance the comet captured in the same image. The Comet 21P, shown in the internal solar system from Earth, is distinguished by its long trail of dust that extends horizontally over the center of the image.
This comet had been visible for months with binoculars, but it is fading as it returns to the orbit of Jupiter. The farthest, 3,500 light-years away, is IC 2177, the Seagull Nebula, visible on the left. The relatively large Seagull Nebula, whose wingspan is 250 light years away, will probably remain visible for hundreds of thousands of years. The long exposures, taken about two weeks ago in Iwaki-City, Japan, were combined to capture the weakest elements of the image. You too could see a meteor like this – and maybe sooner than you think: tonight is the climax of the Orionid meteor shower.
Credit and image copyright: Takao Sambommatsu
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