Made from rice-sized bits of debris from the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet, the meteor shower runs until August 24 but will reach its peak in the evening hours of August 11.
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There are presumptions concerning the visibility of the Perseid Meteor Shower regarding how hard it would be to perceive the magnificence of the celestial show.
Get ready for one of the most brilliant stellar displays of the year as the Perseid meteor shower peaks later this week.
An outburst of hundreds of Perseid meteors is possible this year when the annual shower peaks late Thursday night and early Friday morning.
THE planets will align with the best meteor shower in a decade this weekend, with parts of the display featuring debris from a comet that passed us 1000 years ago. When “comet-stuff” hits Earth’s atmosphere, it disintegrates in flashes of light, which can be seen from Earth, NASA says.
However, this year Jupiter’s gravity has interfered and nudged Swift-Tuttle’s debris stream closer to our planet. The Perseids will last at least another week.
These meteors are called Perseids because they seem to fly out of the constellation Perseus.
Swift-Tuttle, whose nucleus is 16 miles (26 kilometers) wide, is the largest solar system object to pass close to Earth repeatedly, NASA has said, and researchers once thought it was likely to hit Earth in 2126 – but the last time it passed Earth, in 1992, astronomers took more precise measurements and calculated that its next pass wouldn’t be so unsafe after all.
This may be one of those years, Nasa said. Experts agree that three or more streams are on a collision course with Earth.
The Perseids pose no danger to Earth, NASA said, as most burn up 50 miles above our planet.
The best way to see the Perseids is to go outside between midnight and dawn on the morning of August 12.
All you need is a clear sky, your own eyes and a nice, dark spot to get to skywatching. Lie on your back and look straight up. “Increased activity may also be seen on August 12-13”, Nasa said.
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At that speed, even a smidgen of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it collides with Earth’s atmosphere.
