Perseid Meteors

After teaming up with the Sun to produce a solar eclipse today, the Moon will make another skywatching spectacle possible tonight – the Perseid meteor shower. It’s expected to be at its peak tonight. And since the Moon is new, it won’t be around to interfere with the sparklers. The Perseids occur every August, as Earth flies through the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet is a ball of frozen gases mixed with bits of rock and metal. As it approaches the Sun, some of its gas vaporizes. That releases some of the heavier material, known as comet dust. As Earth zips through this material, some of the dust grains slam into our atmosphere at more than a hundred thousand miles per hour. They vaporize instantly, creating meteors – streaks of light across the sky. Swift-Tuttle returned to the inner solar system a third of a century ago. That was its first appearance since the Civil War, so the Perseids were especially good for a while. With the comet retreating into the outer solar system, though, there’s less comet dust to feed the shower. The meteors enter the atmosphere from the direction of Perseus – hence the name. But they can streak across any part of the sky, so you don’t have to look to a specific region to see them. To view the Perseids, find a safe, dark observing site away from the pesky glare of city lights. Then watch the sky for cosmic sparklers. Script by Damond Benningfield