Radiant (meteor shower) Radiant (meteor shower) The radiant or apparent radiant of a meteor shower is the celestial point in the sky from which (from the point of view of a terrestrial observer) the paths of meteors appear to originate. The Perseids, for example, are meteors which appear to come from a point within the constellation of Perseus. Meteor paths appear at random locations in the sky, but the apparent paths of two or more meteors from the same shower will converge at the radiant. The radiant is the vanishing point of the meteor paths, which are parallel lines in three-dimensional space, as
Distance from a point to a line length of this projection is given by: Now, thus Since "Q" is a point on the line, formula_27, and so, It is possible to produce another expression to find the shortest distance of a point to a line. This derivation also requires that the line is not vertical or horizontal. The point P is given with coordinates (formula_29). The equation of a line is given by formula_30. The equation of the normal of that line which passes through the point P is given formula_31. The point at which these two lines intersect is the closest point on the original line