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No one wants to walk through a cloud of dust and debris…but sometimes that coincidence can be magical.
As Earth navigates through a cloud of cosmic debris this month, the night skies will be illuminated by the Perseids, a group of meteors strewn with luminous meteors each year.
Experts expect that the activity of Perseids will reach its peak this year, between 12 and 13 August this year. These meteors can be seen all over the Earth, but they are best seen in the Northern Hemisphere.
Unfortunately, this meteor display won’t be as spectacular as it was last year, due to some surprising competition from the full moon, which has always attracted the attention of stargazers.
“Unfortunately, this year’s Perseids peak will see the worst possible conditions for observers,” Bill Cook, a NASA astronomer who heads the Meteor Environment Office, said in a statement.
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According to Cook, competition from our moon could mean that people in the northern hemisphere, for example, might see fewer meteors, likely 10-20 meteors per hour instead of 50-60 meteors.
And the US space agency tweeted, “Stargazers will see a dull show, less joy and splendor.”
It’s a shine off! ????
This year’s Perseids meteor shower will have to contend with the full Moon’s brightness. Look up if you’re outside after midnight (local time) on Aug. 12 or 13, when it’ll be at its peak–you might be lucky and see the brightest ones. https://t.co/vFkqWhKOmi pic.twitter.com/iPP9lsYmzx— NASA (@NASA) August 1, 2022
But even so, this might be your chance to enjoy an amazing meteor shower, and if you’re very lucky you might get to see the most brilliant meteor.
What are the Perseids meteorites?
It all starts with Comet Swift-Tuttle, which has orbited the sun for 133 years – just like Earth, but at a different angle.
“What happens is that every year the Earth collides with the path of the comet’s orbit and all the debris left behind,” says astronomer Edward Bloomer of the Royal Greenwich Museum in Britain.
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As these cosmic debris – ice, dust and rice-sized bits of rock – hit the upper layers of the atmosphere, “it ignites with amazing results, albeit sometimes for just a split second,” Blumer explains.
He adds that the reason for the uniqueness of the meteor showers in the Perseids meteors is that they are “very reliable and hard to disappoint, and although their activity peaks in mid-August each year, you can see it as of late July.”
It can be enjoyed with the naked eye and one might do well to check out and observe the sky for several nights in a row, because it may be rewarded by watching the amazing space show.
Sometimes a larger portion of the remaining comet appears, and “if you’re lucky, you might be able to see the most amazing, brightest meteor,” adds Plummer, who after years of observing managed to catch a glimpse of a bright meteor only for a few seconds.
Is it worth it?
“Sure! Turn off all the lights and enjoy this dazzling show,” Bloomer says.
Perseids is similar to a fireworks display but it is made of nature, and the meteor showers are so heavy that an observer can easily witness up to 100 bright meteors per hour.
Rest assured, although meteorites hit the Earth’s atmosphere at a whopping 215,000 kilometers per hour, they do not pose any danger.
“Just give yourself a treat, put a blanket on the floor, stretch out, and look up at the sky,” says Bloomer.
“It is a soothing and relaxing sight,” and can be seen anywhere in the world.
Top tips for enjoying the PERSEIDS meteors
Astronomer Edward Bloomer recommends:
• Choose a wide swath of sky to the east, or northeast. If you know the constellations that make up the main constellations, you should watch Perseus’ constellation near the constellation of Queen Cassiopeia. If you can’t figure out the correct destination, use an app on your smartphone to help you.
• Choose where you are at dusk, unfold your cover, lie down, relax completely, and wait until it gets completely dark. You need to turn off all lights, cell phones and any other source of light pollution
• Relax and enjoy one of nature’s greatest pleasures: you are about to see about 100 meteors per hour, and you might be lucky to see the unique, brightest meteor
Where did the name Perseids come from?
“We call these meteorites Perseids because the falling meteors seem to radiate from the star cluster Perseus,” says Blumer.
Perhaps the most prominent of these are those in the Catholic tradition, which are also known as the “Tears of Saint Lawrence” in reference to Laurentius, one of the seven deacons of Rome who were martyred in the persecutions of Christians by the Romans in the year 258 AD.
This saint was cremated alive on August 10, and according to Mediterranean folklore the meteors falling at this time of year are the sparks left over from that fire.
But long before the Romans, there were already some astonishingly accurate astronomical records from Persia, Babylon, Egypt, Korea, and Japan—providing detailed accounts of meteor showers.
The first recorded observation of Perseids is believed to date from the Han Dynasty of China, where astronomers wrote in AD 36 of the nights when “more than 100 meteorites fell here and there on an early morning”.