APOD: 2026 August 3 – Vaporizing Meteor Photobombs the Lacerta Nebula
A vaporizing meteor was captured on camera as it streaked across the sky, briefly illuminating the Lacerta Nebula. The meteor's glow was created by heating and exciting the surrounding air in Earth's atmosphere, and its composition can be determined by the colors of the gas and dust it left behind. The image was taken from Death Valley Observatories in Nevada, USA, and this month is a good time to see meteors due to three ongoing meteor showers.
- ▪The meteor was likely a small pebble that vaporized in Earth's atmosphere.
- ▪The image was captured last month from Death Valley Observatories in Nevada, USA.
- ▪There are currently three meteor showers ongoing, with the Perseids being the most active.
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| Original publisher | NASA |
| Canonical URL | https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-august-3-vaporizing-meteor-photobombs-the-lacerta-nebula/ |
| Publication time | Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:05:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-03T04:39:17.393Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-03T04:39:17.393Z |
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| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Cluster | bBR2LDzad5XA · 1 stories |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
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APODScienceAPODAPOD: 2026 August 3 –...Today's APODArchiveSubmissionsIndexSearchCalendarRSSEducationAboutDiscuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. <strong>Vaporizing Meteor Photobombs the Lacerta Nebula</strong> Explanation: What's happening to this meteor? This bright meteor streak appeared and disappeared quickly during a long exposure of the Great Lacerta Nebula, seen faintly in red toward the center of the image.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at NASA.
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