Marcin Rosadziński is the author of NASA's photo of the day

Marcin Rosadziński's photograph was honored as NASA's Photo of the Day. The shot was taken in the Bieszczady Mountains and depicts the Perseid meteor shower.

The photo, taken last August in the Bieszczady Mountains, was named NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on Tuesday , August 12 .

“It’s always a great honor 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,” wrote astrophotographer Marcin Rosadziński on his Instagram account.

The description of the winning photograph on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website states: "The image presented here is a composite taken over six nights and includes over 100 meteors from the August 2024 Perseid meteor shower. It shows many bright meteors that passed over the Bieszczady Mountains in Poland."

As astronomy popularizer Karol Wójcicki explained on his "Z głowy w gwiazdach" Facebook profile, the Perseids – one of the most spectacular meteor showers – are associated with comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which ejects a stream of cosmic dust. The luminous phenomenon, called "shooting stars," is caused by these very particles of matter, which fall into the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere at about 70 km/s and burn up, leaving behind luminous trails of ionized gas.

The Perseid meteor shower's orbit intersects Earth's every year between July 17 and August 24. This year, the Perseids peak at 10 p.m. on Tuesday. In its image of the day caption, NASA reminded that viewing the Perseids this year may be hampered by a bright Moon (three days after full moon), which will rise in many places on Earth shortly after sunset.

Marcin Rosadziński's images have previously been honored as NASA's Photo of the Day three times (September 11, May 29, 2024, and July 18, 2023). He was also named the best Milky Way photographer of 2025 by the international group of professional astrophotographers Capture the Atlas. Rosadziński is also a winner of the international AstroCamera competition in the Astrolandscape category.

Polish authors are relatively frequently named NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). Recent winners include Ireneusz Nowak (May 27), Marzena Rogozińska (May 20), Wioleta Gorecka (March 30), and Włodzimierz Bubak (December 28 of last year).

Astronomy Picture of the Day is a NASA-run service that features one image of astronomical objects or astrolandscapes every day. The service has been running since 1995, and having a photo featured is a significant honor for astrophotographers. (PAP)

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