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This astronomical photograph captures a Perseid meteor streaking across the night sky on August 15 at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Spain, with the Milky Way visible in the background. The image prominently features the 23-meter diameter mirror of LST-1, the first Large-Sized Telescope at the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory's northern hemisphere site. The telescope's 198 hexagonal mirror segments, designed to detect nanosecond-duration visible light flashes from gamma-ray events, also reflected the bright meteor as it passed overhead.
Why it matters
This image showcases LST-1's capabilities for detecting atmospheric light phenomena and highlights the Cherenkov Telescope Array's role in studying high-energy cosmic events such as gamma-ray bursts and emissions from distant active galaxies. The photograph demonstrates the intersection of meteor observation and cutting-edge gamma-ray astronomy infrastructure.
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Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way
Explanation: On August 15, this perseid meteor streaked through night skies over the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos at La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. The bright and colorful meteor trail was captured next to the central Milky Way, whose dark interstellar dust clouds and luminous starlight reach above the horizon. In the foreground of this tantalizing celestial scene is the 23 meter diameter mirror of the prototype Large-Sized Telescope (LST-1). LST-1 is the first telescope constructed at the northern hemisphere site of the innovative Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory. With 198 hexagonal mirror segments and a large, high-efficiency, pixelized camera, LST-1 is designed to detect extremely brief, atmospheric visible light flashes. Lasting about a billionth of a second, the visible light flashes are triggered by energetic gamma-rays from cosmic sources such as distant active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. Of course, on that night some individual mirror segments of LST-1 also reflected the atmospheric flash of the bright perseid meteor.
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Tomorrow’s picture: before and after
| Date | September 26, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Credit & Copyright: | Jeff Dai (TWAN) |
| Authors & editors: | Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Keighley Rockcliffe |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |
Source: APOD: 2026 September 26 – Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way