Normally, between 80 and 100 meteors light up the Earth’s atmosphere during the shower, but this year NASA expects between 160 and 200 an hour.
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That’s also because the earth is expected to pass through a more dense part of the trail of debris this year.
“Forecasters are predicting a Perseid outburst this year with double normal rates on the night of August 11-12”, said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office.
At its peak, viewers should be able to see 200 or more meteors per hour.
Perseid meteors travel at the incredible speed of 132,000 miles per hour – 500 times faster than the world’s fastest auto, according to NASA.
According to NASA’s website, the best way to see the Perseids is to go outside between midnight and dawn on Friday morning.
NASA advises that people who want to catch the shooting star display should allow their eyes 45 minutes to adjust.
The 2016 Perseids meteor shower is already upon us, but Thursday and Friday night’s showers, in particular, will collectively be one extraodinary sight.
“A meteor is actually caused by just a tiny little sand-sized grain of rock that is actually being incinerated in the earth’s atmosphere because it is traveling so fast”, he said. Astronomer Adam Block said this predicted outburst could be the best show since 2009. The best time to watch out for the shooting stars is around 2 or 3am. This year’s shower starts Thursday night and continues into early Friday morning.
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An August tradition, the Perseids are so named because the meteors appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, the Medusa-killing hero of Greek mythology. We see them as the Perseid Meteors. Find the darkest sky you can, away from city lights and make yourself comfortable. The shower is visible from mid-July each year, with the peak in activity falling sometime in the period of August 9-14.
