Meteor between the Clouds
Credit &
Copyright:
Victor van Wulfen
This bright meteor streaked through dark
night skies over
Sutherland,
South Africa on November 15.
Potentially part of the
annual Leonid meteor shower, its
sudden, brilliant appearance, likened to a camera's flash,
was captured by chance
as it passed between two clouds.
Of course, the two clouds are also visible to the eye in
dark southern skies -
the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds -
satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way.
This year's
Leonid
meteor shower peaked on November 17 as
the Earth passed through the stream of dust from
periodic comet Tempel-Tuttle.