by The Perseid meteor shower is back for its annual show, peppering our skies with its characteristic streaks of light and streaks at peak luminance.
The shower, which is expected to peak in intensity over the weekend, is being made visible by the burning of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle in the atmosphere, appearing near the constellation Perseus.
Although the Perseids are active from July 14 to September 1 each year, the Global Meteor Network monitoring service predicts that the greatest intensity of visible meteor activity under ideal conditions will peak around 3 a.m. Sunday, lasting until early Tuesday morning.
In addition to being a spectacular sight, star showers can give us a fascinating glimpse into the universe above us. So what can we expect to see?
“They’ll be bright flashes in the sky, with a tail,” Ted Bergin, a professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan, told the Washington Post. “Comets are some of the oldest material in the solar system. So you’re seeing some of the oldest pieces of the solar system burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.”
As with other showers, peak viewing times are in the early hours of the day, before dawn, but the phenomenon can be spotted as early as 10 p.m. Meteors are most visible on clear days and can often be seen with the naked eye. However, using a long exposure camera or the dark mode on a phone camera can allow viewers to capture the moment.
Of the three major meteor showers of the year, the Perseids are unique in their summertime seasonality. The Geminids and Quadrantids occur in December and January, respectively. Unlike other astronomical phenomena, including eclipses and the northern lights, the shower will be visible around the world, although those in the northern hemisphere will have the clearest view.
According to NASA, you can expect to see vibrant meteors passing by at speeds of about 60 kilometers per second, with peaks of nearly 100 meteors per hour.
