Attention stargazers and astronomy-aholics (as well as those of you just looking for an out-of-this-world finish to your weekend): the yearly Perseid meteor shower – arguably the world’s best known and most reliable meteor shower – is expected to be on full display Sunday night/Monday morning (August 12-13).
While the meteor shower shows up each year in August, when earth grazes the debris trail of Comet Swift-Tuttle (a comet which orbits the sun every 133 years), this weekend is supposed to be different. According to experts at NASA, while earth normally just “grazes the edge” of the comet’s debris stream, this year our planet is expected to collide with three or more streams – which should result in a jaw-dropping celestial show.
NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke is forecasting “a Perseid outburst this year with double normal rates on the night of August 11-12 [in the United States],” and that under ideal conditions “rates could soar to 200 meteors per hour.”
“Here’s something to think about. The meteors you’ll see this year are from comet flybys that occurred hundreds if not thousands of years ago... And they’ve traveled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earth’s atmosphere,” said Cooke in a NASA report published August 2.
In an interview with Space.com, Cooke also points out this year’s meteor display will benefit from a lack of light interference, as the moon is currently in a new moon phase. A new moon rises and sets with the sun and is generally not present in the night sky, offering the perfect conditions for star gazing.
According to the Wuyang Planetarium of Guangzhou, the best time to see the Perseid meteor shower at its peak from China is between midnight and daybreak on the morning of August 13. Make sure, however, to check your local weather forecast beforehand, as foggy or rainy conditions may hamper the experience.
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Additional research by Matthew Bossons.
[Cover image via Tucker Hammerstrom/Flickr]
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