What is the Perseids Metror Shower set to peak in mid august ? – Burning Issues – Free PDF

METEOR SHOWER

• The Perseids meteor shower is going to be active from August 17-26. The annual celestial event is considered the best meteor shower, thanks to the many bright meteors and fireballs shooting through the sky making it easy for people to watch it from Earth.

WHAT ARE METEOR SHOWERS?

• Meteors are bits of rock and ice that are ejected from comets as they manoeuvre around their orbits around the sun.
• Meteor showers, on the other hand, are witnessed when Earth passes through the trail of debris left behind by a comet or an asteroid.
  When a meteor reaches the Earth, it is called a meteorite and a series of meteorites, when encountered at once, is termed as a meteor shower

What is the Perseids meteor shower?

• The Perseids meteor shower peaks every year in mid-August. It was first observed over 2,000 years ago.
•  The cloud of debris is about 27 km wide, and at the peak of the display, between 160 and 200 meteors streak through the Earth’s atmosphere every hour as the pieces of debris, travelling at some 2.14 lakh km per hour, burn up a little less than 100 km above the Earth’s surface.

Where do the Perseids meteor showers come from?

• The comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862 by Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle, takes 133 years to complete one rotation around the sun.
• The last time it reached its closest approach to the sun was in 1992 and will do so again in 2125. Every time comets come close to the sun, they leave behind dust that is essentially the debris trail, which the Earth passes through every year as it orbits around the Sun.

How can one view the Perseids meteor shower?

• According to NASA, these meteor showers are best viewed from areas in the Northern Hemisphere in pre-dawn hours.
•  However, at times, it may be possible to view the meteor showers as early as 10 pm. Further, meteors are best visible on a cloudless night, when the sky is visible and when the Moon is not extremely bright.

How can one view the Perseids meteor shower?

• Chances of a successful viewing are higher from locations far away from the lights of cities. Pollution and monsoon clouds make the Perseids difficult to view from India
•  But in areas where there is no light or air pollution, viewers do not need to use any special equipment to view the showers and one should make sure to give enough time to let the eyes adjust to the darkness, which can take about 30 minutes.

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