Meteor caught in the act (MASCOT)

The trail of a bright meteor, photographed by the Mini All-Sky Cloud Observation Tool (MASCOT) at the ESO Paranal Observatory. MASCOT consists of a small CCD camera behind a fish-eye objective. It typically takes 90s exposures every 3 minutes and helps astronomers inside the VLT Control Room to keep an eye on the sky. The main purpose of MASCOT is to monitor the clouds over Paranal but it also observes from time to time serendipitous events like meteor showers, atmospheric phenomena, artificial satellites, etc. This image was obtained by MASCOT on August 25, 2002 and shows a meteor caught in the act. The Milky Way is also clearly visible in the centre.

Credit:

ESO

About the Image

Id:eso0424a
Type:Photographic
Release date:30 July 2004
Related releases:eso0424
Size:2359 x 2089 px

About the Object

Name:Asteroid
Type:Solar System : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Trail : Meteor
Category:Fulldome
Solar System

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