Prepare stargazers: the Perseid meteor bathe peaks subsequent week, Aug. 12-13, bringing as much as 100 taking pictures stars per hour, together with the potential for dazzling fireballs
The Perseid meteor shower happens annually as Earth barrels by means of the path of historical particles shed by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. These cometary fragments — usually no larger than a grain of sand — collide with Earth’s environment at speeds of as much as 37 miles (59 kilometers) per second. The ensuing friction swiftly vaporizes the particles, creating the intense flashes that we see as fiery “shooting stars”.
Perseid meteors are recognized for the lengthy wakes that they go away behind as they blaze by means of the sky. The bathe can also be well-known for producing dramatic fireballs — unusually shiny meteors that may outshine even the brightest planets.
This 12 months’s spectacle comes with one main caveat: moonlight. The 80% illuminated waning gibbous moon will rise just a few hours earlier than midnight on Aug. 12 and stay excessive above the southern horizon till daybreak, washing out all however the brightest meteors.
Regardless of the moonlight, the Perseids may nonetheless placed on a pleasant present. They may seem to emanate from some extent of origin — referred to as a radiant — situated close to the star Eta Persei within the constellation Perseus, which climbs excessive in the summertime sky within the hours main as much as daybreak round this time of 12 months. These new to stargazing can discover the constellation with the assistance of a smartphone astronomy app, a lot of which make use of augmented actuality expertise to assist pinpoint the exact areas of particular stars.
Perseids are greatest seen within the hours previous daybreak on Aug. 13, when the radiant is at its highest within the northeastern evening sky, although it is potential to identify meteors belonging to the bathe as early as 10 p.m. native time.
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You may maximise your possibilities of seeing meteors with the longest tails by permitting your evening imaginative and prescient to regulate in a darkish sky location for half-hour and gazing roughly 40 levels above the radiant relative to the horizon. Keep in mind, the width of your clenched fist held at arm’s size in opposition to the evening sky accounts for roughly 10 levels.
Editor’s Notice: When you seize an image of a Perseid meteor and wish to share it with House.com’s readers, then please ship your photograph(s), feedback,title and site to spacephotos@house.com.