Perseid meteor shower

Home Science
Perseid meteor shower

Brock1
Tonight and early Monday am are expected to be great for meteor showers, SPACE.COM has all the details and a top 10 fact page about the annual Perseid meteor shower-

The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a great show this year, peaking in mid-August with a display of dozens of shooting stars each hour.

The Moon will be out of the way, leaving dark skies for good viewing as Earth plunges through an ancient stream of comet debris. Little bits, most no larger than sand grains, will vaporize in Earth’s atmosphere, creating sometimes-dramatic “shooting stars.”

“It’s going to be a great show,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. “The Moon is new on August 12, which means no moonlight, dark skies and plenty of meteors.” This year the Perseid meteor shower could deliver one or two visible streaks every minute during peak times, Cooke said in a statement yesterday. Urban skywatchers will see fewer due to local light pollution.

The meteors in this shower all appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus. The best times to watch will be late night Aug. 12 through dawn Aug. 13.

“The August Perseids are among the strongest of the readily observed annual meteor showers, and at maximum activity nominally yield 90 or 100 meteors per hour,” said Joe Rao, SPACE.com’s Skywatching columnist. “However, observers with exceptional skies often record even larger numbers.”

SPACE.com — August Meteor Shower Will Be ‘A Great Show’ – Link & more.

2 thoughts on “Perseid meteor shower

  1. PLC.Doctor says:

    I spotted 20 bright meteors around 3:00am, probably could have seen more except there is a lot of hazy in the air from a grass fire burning in the hills to the west of us.

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

current: @adafruit - previous: MAKE, popular science, hackaday, engadget, fallon, braincraft ... howtoons, 2600...

View more articles by Phillip Torrone

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK