Perseid meteor photo shot from ISS

This time each year you can step outside and see some really cool shooting stars as they plummet though the atmosphere. Almost all of them burn up during entry and leave glowing streaks behind for people to stare at. You can see the Perseid meteors from space as well as evidenced by this awesome photo shot by an astronaut on the ISS.

Astronaut Ron Garan tweeted the photo shot from a window on the ISS of one of the meteors streaking into the atmosphere. If you have ever watched these meteor showers as they fall, one thing we all have in common on earth is that the meteors are falling towards us. I wonder how the photographer managed to capture the meteor. Was he just standing there and happened to see it or did he grab the camera and float for the window to shoot the pic.

The cool part about this is that the meteor is falling away from the photographer. I wonder if anyone on the ground happened to be looking at this same meteor as it fell. It would be cool to see the same meteor from space and the ground. Garan tweeted the photo on Sunday. Interestingly Garan is an American astronaut nearing the end of his 6-month stay on the ISS. He has been on the ISS since April.

[via Discovery]