# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm-E5HIrb4Z
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/2905399-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/343f5ee3f3.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-01-03T22:34:12.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Lucky Streak⁣.
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Each January, the Quadrantids Meteor Shower peaks for a few hours, giving spectators some of the best potential annual meteor shower views. Most easily seen in the Northern Hemisphere this year on Jan. 3, the Quadrantids are known for their bright fireball meteors, and as many as 60 to 200 meteors can be seen per hour in ideal conditions. However, in 2023, a nearly full Moon may wash out many shooting stars, if you can see the sky at all through January clouds.⁣
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So, how about a virtual meteor experience instead? The image above was captured by astronaut Ron Garan in 2011 from the ISS and shows a Perseid meteor. Meteors, sometimes known as shooting stars, are roughly pebble-sized meteoroid or comet that enters our atmosphere and are typically vaporized.⁣
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Image description: Green and dim yellow airglow appears as thin layers visible above the limb of the Earth, extending from image left to upper image 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 observable from orbit. The sun is low on the horizon as it appears near part of one of the station's solar panel arrays at image upper right. A lone Perseid meteor appears as a bright streak near the center of the image.⁣
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Credit: NASA/Ron Garan⁣
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#MeteorShower #Atmosphere #SpaceStation #Earth #NASA #Space #Quadrantids #ShootingStars #MakeAWish

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## Tags

makeawish, quadrantids, shootingstars, spacestation, earth, nasa, meteorshower, space, atmosphere

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