Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks this Weekend: How to Watch and What to Know | Space.com

The Perseid meteor shower will peak this weekend.

Early in the morning on August 13, one of the most famous meteor showers, the Perseids, will be observed at its highest activity. Through the stream of these meteorites, which are fragments of comet Swift-Tuttle, our planet passes every year. But it is on Sunday, August 13, that most of the so-called “shooting stars” can be observed in the night sky, writes Space.

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The Perseids are an annual meteor shower that creates a spectacular “light show” in Earth’s atmosphere as flying meteorites burn up in it. At the same time, every hour you can watch more than 100 “fireballs” flying in the night sky.

This year, the Perseid meteor shower has already been visible since July 17th and “shooting stars” can still be seen until August 24th. But most of the meteorites that burn up in the atmosphere can be seen starting from 4.30 am Kyiv time on Sunday, August 13.

By the way, it will be possible to observe the meteor shower without leaving home, the main thing is that there is Internet access. On the YouTube channel of the famous Italian astronomical project Virtual Telescope, there will be a live broadcast of the peak activity of the Perseid stream.

This meteor shower got its name from the fact that meteorites seem to be flying towards Earth from the constellation Perseus. Due to the fact that the Moon will not shine very brightly on this night, the sky will be dark enough for a good observation of this astronomical phenomenon.

The Perseid meteor shower comes from the debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. This ice ball, about 26 km wide, approaches the Sun every 133 years at a speed of 150,000 km/h.

The Perseid meteor shower emerges from debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle

Photo: Universe Today

When this happens, the solar radiation heats the comet and the ice on its surface turns into gas, which evaporates and carries away with it fragments of ice, dust and stones that make up the comet. These fragments begin to revolve around the Sun in the form of a meteor shower, through which the Earth flies every year.

It is believed that these meteorites fall into the atmosphere of our planet at a speed of 200 thousand km / h. As a result of the fall, these stones are heated to a temperature of thousands of degrees Celsius and at an altitude of 70 to 100 km, the larger ones explode and turn into fireballs. Smaller fragments of the comet fly further and also gradually burn out, leaving bright long streaks of light in the sky.

Focus already wrote about other meteor showers that the Earth passes through, which also create bright “light shows” in the sky.

Focus also wrote that astronomers had received new data about the most distant known star. It turned out that it emits a million times more light than our Sun and is at a distance that is even hard to imagine.

2023-08-12 19:34:28
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