2023-08-13 05:57:30
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, August 12-13, the annual Perseid meteor shower peaked in the sky. In French-speaking Switzerland, nearly 500 cities and towns had been called upon to turn off their lights to allow better observation by the public.
Up to 100 shooting stars might be seen per hour between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., according to Meteonews. After a record number in 2018, the meteor stream was expected to be weaker once more this year. The night from Saturday to Sunday was the most suitable for observation, but it was possible to admire meteors before and the swarm will still be active until September 1, according to NASA.
The best vantage points are far from the big cities, on hills and mountains. As an anticyclone with clear skies is forecast for the weekend, shooting star visibility should be good. The use of a telescope is not necessary.
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Comet debris
The shooting stars are actually debris or remnants of comet Swift-Tuttle. This stream of meteors the size of a speck of dust or a pea spins at 59 kilometers per second, or regarding 200,000 km/h, and burns at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The debris compresses the air in front of them and heats it to thousands of degrees. As a result, at an altitude between 70 km and 100 km above the Earth, large fragments of rock and ice explode in the form of bright fireballs. Smaller fragments of debris can pass further into the Earth’s atmosphere as they are vaporized, and this more gradual destruction leaves longer light trails in their wake.
They can be observed every year at the same time. Our planet, in orbit around the Sun, then plunges into the cloud of debris left by the comet.
A Swift-Tuttle orbit around the Sun takes 133 years. The last time this comet reached its perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) was in 1992. It will return in 2125, explain NASA.
Public lighting dimmed
Several cities in French-speaking Switzerland have turned off part of their public lighting to allow the population to better see shooting stars. For this 5th edition, nearly 500 municipalities have been invited to turn the switch by the Perseides project: 217 localities responded to the call in French-speaking Switzerland, ie 70 more than last year.
For example, municipalities participate in the operation in the four corners of the canton of Vaud. In the city of Lausanne, Ouchy and Sauvabelin, two areas without car traffic were plunged into darkness.
>> The map of the Perseides project
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Elsewhere in French-speaking Switzerland, Neuchâtel did not light a large part of its 6,600 street lamps at all. The city center, which hosted several important events such as the Buskers in the pedestrian zone, was an exception.
Sion, Sierre, Bulle (FR) or Porrentruy (JU) have also announced that they will leave more room for darkness to promote observation of the stars.
Founded in Orbe (VD) in 2019, the Perseides Project is a non-profit association whose goal is to turn off, every year, throughout Europe, artificial lighting on the night of August 12 to 13. In German-speaking Switzerland, the organization Dark-Sky, of American origin, has created an antenna: it deals with the problem of light pollution in Switzerland.
Note that shooting stars can also be observed online, in particular on the live monitoring offered on the night of August 12 to 13, from 3:30 a.m., by the project of the Virtual Telescope.
>> The rain of shooting stars live on YouTube on the night of August 12 to 13
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