The Perseid meteor shower will burst into light this August as Earth passes through the long trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle — and this month, it's going to put on a spectacular show. Read more below to see how and when to see the Perseids.
According to NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke, the Perseids are perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year. They will be in "outburst" in 2016, which means they'll appear at double the usual rates. This year, instead of seeing about 80 Perseids per hour, the rate could top 150 and even approach 200 meteors per hour.
When to see them?
Earth will pass through
the path of Comet Swift-Tuttle from July 17 to Aug. 24, with the shower's peak
— when Earth passes through the densest, dustiest area — occurring on Aug. 12.
That means you'll see the most meteors in the shortest amount of time near that
peak, but you can still catch some action from the famed meteor shower before
or after that point.
The meteors will seem to
originate from the constellation Perseus, which appears on the horizon at about
10 p.m. local time. However, the most meteors will be visible after midnight.
What causes the Perseids?
Comet Swift-Tuttle is the
largest object known to repeatedly pass by Earth; its nucleus is about 26 kilometers wide. It last passed nearby Earth during its orbit around the
sun in 1992, and the next time will be in 2126. But it won't be forgotten in
the meantime, because Earth passes through the dust and debris it leaves behind
every year, creating the annual Perseid meteor shower.
When you sit back to
watch a meteor shower, you're actually seeing the pieces of comet debris heat
up as they enter the atmosphere and burn up in a bright burst of light,
streaking a vivid path across the sky as they travel at 59 km per
second. When they're in space, the pieces of debris are called
"meteoroids," but when they reach Earth's atmosphere, they're
designated as "meteors." If a piece makes it all the way down to
Earth without burning up, it graduates to "meteorite." Most of the
meteors in the Perseids are much too small for that; they're about the size of
a grain of sand.
What do you need to see
them?
The key to seeing a
meteor shower is to take in as much sky as possible. Go
to a dark area, preferrably in the countryside, and prepare to sit outside for a
few hours. It takes about 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark, and
the longer you wait outside, the more you'll see. A rate of 150 meteors per
hour, for instance, means two to three meteors per minute, including faint
streaks along with bright, fireball-generating ones.
Some skywatchers plan to
camp out to see the Perseid meteor shower, but at the very least, viewers
should bring something comfortable to sit on, some snacks and some bug spray.
Then, just relax and look upward for the celestial show.
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KSGenre © 2016. Article edited by Kyle Farrugia.
