Perseid meteor shower
Every year, on August 12 and 13, observers of the night sky can watch the Perseid meteor shower.[1][2]
The meteors in the Perseids, like the meteors in most other meteor showers, are debris shed by comets, when they heat up when they approach Sol, our sun.[2]
Observers can expect to see around 60 meteors per hour.[2]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑
"109P/Swift-Tuttle". NASA Science. 2017-11-29. Archived from the original on 2023-10-14. Retrieved 2026-06-07.
Swift-Tuttle is a large comet – its nucleus is 16 miles (26 kilometers) across. (That is more than twice the size of the object hypothesized to have led the demise of the dinosaurs.)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2
"Meteor Showers Ranked". Eastern Sierra Observatory. 2019-08-12. Retrieved 2026-06-07.
Meteor showers rain down from the cosmos throughout the year. These showers occur when Earth passes through a debris field in its orbit. Most of the debris we come in contact with is "dust" shed by comets traveling through the solar system, but meteors can range in size from as tiny as microns to as large as 1 meter. Anything larger than that is considered an asteroid or comet. Meteors typically enter our atmosphere traveling at speeds of 25,000 mph to 160,000 mph.