Like every summer, the Perseids, the famous shower of shooting stars, returns in August. This year its peak of activity takes place on the night of Friday 12 to Saturday 13 August. What is this natural phenomenon? And how best to observe it?
Every summer, with their eyes fixed on the sky, all astronomy enthusiasts try to catch a glimpse of the Perseids swarm of shooting stars. They appear in the sky between July 20 to August 25, but the maximum of their visibility takes place on the night of Friday August 12 to Saturday August 13. But where does this magnificent luminous ballet come from?
comet dust
The Perseids come from the dust trail left by the comet 109/Swift-Tuttle. The latter is currently in orbit around the sun. Its core measures 26 kilometers according to the Nasa. Its luminous traces appear when the dust comes into contact and disintegrates in the Earth’s atmosphere at more than 200,000 km/h.
This shooting star shower is known to be very abundant. Between 50 and 100 meteors enter the atmosphere in an hour at the height of the period.
How to observe the Perseids?
To admire this astronomical phenomenon it is not necessary to be equipped with a telescope, your eyes will be more than enough.
The best advice to remember is to stay away from cities because that’s where the light pollution is the strongest. You can view, in the poster de naturefrance.fr reproduced below, the best areas for stargazing in France.
Map of light pollution in France
(Click on images to enlarge)
ZOOM on Occitanie light pollution map
Be careful, this year, it may be more complicated to observe shooting stars on the night of August 12 to 13 because the Moon will be full, recalls NASA.
It’s a shine off! ud83cudf0c
This year’s Perseids meteor shower will have to contend with the full Moon’s brightness. Look up if you’re outside following 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
So go out into nature and look up to the sky, a surprise may be waiting for you! And if you’re not available tonight, don’t panic: these shooting stars will still be visible until August 25th.
