68 meteors appear to fall at once in this fantastic photo

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA is really something special, as the Perseid meteor shower appears to spit dozens of meteors from the same point in the sky all at once.

We'll let the expert astronomer describe what's going on here:

Astronomer Xiang Zhan recorded a series of 10 second long exposures spanning four hours on the night of August 12/13 using a wide angle lens.

Combining frames which captured 68 meteor flashes, he produced the above composite view of the Perseids of summer.

Although the sand-sized comet particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting shower meteors clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky … the radiant effect is due to perspective, as the parallel tracks appear to converge at a distance.

APOD publishes a great space pic every day. You can find them here.