'Great show' predicted for Perseid meteor peak on August 12–13

August 7, 2018 by Diana Hannikainen, Sky & Telescope

The Perseid meteors appear to stream away from the shower's "radiant" point near the border of Perseus and Cassiopeia. Click image for larger star-chart version. Credit: Sky & Telescope

The Perseid meteor shower, an annual celestial event beloved by millions of skywatchers around the world, is about to make its annual return to the night sky. And thanks to a new Moon, there'll be no bright moonlight to hinder the view.

Sky & Telescope magazine predicts that this year's Perseid shower will reach its peak on Sunday night, August 12th, and early morning on the 13th. You can also see some Perseids, though fewer in number, for several nights before and after thatup. Each Perseid particle zips in at 37 miles (60 km) per second, creating a quick, white-hot streak of superheated air. The nuggets in Grape Nuts cereal are a close match to the estimated size, color, and texture of typical meteor-shower particles.

These particular bits were shed long ago by Comet Swift-Tuttle and are distributed all along the comet's 133-year-long orbit around the Sun. Earth passes through this tenuous "river of rubble" every year in mid-August. The comet is so named because it was independently discovered by Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle in July 1862.

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The annual Perseid meteor shower is one of the best and most reliable meteor showers of the year. It peaks every year around the 12th/13th August, and under ideal conditions produces a maximum