APOD: 2026 September 26 – Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 September 26 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss 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. Mirrored Meteor and […]
On September 26, 2026, the Astronomy Picture of the Day showcased a captivating celestial scene featuring a mirrored meteor and the Milky Way. The image was captured over the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos at La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, on August 15. The bright and colorful meteor trail was prominently displayed alongside the central Milky Way, which was adorned with dark interstellar dust clouds and luminous starlight.
Dominating the foreground of the photograph is the 23-meter diameter mirror of the prototype Large-Sized Telescope (LST-1), the first telescope constructed at the northern hemisphere site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory. The LST-1, equipped with 198 hexagonal mirror segments and a sophisticated camera, is designed to detect the brief atmospheric light flashes caused by high-energy gamma-rays from cosmic sources like distant active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts.
Interestingly, some individual mirror segments of the LST-1 also captured the reflection of the atmospheric flash of the bright perseid meteor during that night. The assignment for image submissions to APOD has been updated, and the main NASA site for the APOD has been redirected from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod.
Written by urgent.news from NASA's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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- APOD: 2026 September 26 – Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way science.nasa.gov
