A photograph by a Polish astrophotographer has been selected as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).
The image, captured last August in the Bieszczady Mountains by Marcin Rosadziński, depicts the Perseid meteor shower and was published on Tuesday, August 12, the peak of this year’s shower.
“It is always a great honour to be recognized by NASA, but this time I appreciate it even more because my Perseid meteor shower was published as an APOD on a special day, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower,” Rosadziński wrote on Instagram.
According to NASA’s description, “Featured here, a composite image taken over six nights and containing over 100 meteors from 2024 August Perseids meteor shower shows many bright meteors that streaked over the Bieszczady Mountains in Poland.”
Astronomy popularizer Karol Wójcicki explained on his Z głową w gwiazdach (Head in the Stars) Facebook page that the Perseids are linked to comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which leaves behind streams of cosmic dust.
As these particles enter Earth’s atmosphere at about 70 km/s, they burn up, creating what observers call “shooting stars.”
The Perseids are active each year between July 17 and August 24, with this year’s peak occurring at 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
NASA said that viewing conditions in 2024 were partially hindered by the bright Moon, which was three days past full.
Rosadziński’s work has been featured on APOD three times before — on September 11, May 29, 2024, and July 18, 2023.
In 2025, he was also named Best Milky Way Photographer by Capture the Atlas, an international group of astrophotographers, and won the international AstroCamera competition in the astro-landscape category.
Polish astrophotographers are regularly featured on APOD. Recent honorees include Ireneusz Nowak (May 27), Marzena Rogozińska (May 20), Wioleta Gorecka (March 30), and Włodzimierz Bubak (December 28, 2023).
NASA has run the Astronomy Picture of the Day website since 1995, publishing one image of the cosmos or an astro-landscape each day. (PAP)
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