The NASA All Sky Fireball Network is already detecting the first meteors of this year’s Perseid meteor shower! The meteor shower peaks on the night of August 12 as the Earth passes through the dustiest debris of comet Swift-Tuttle’s trails.
On July 26, 2023, the NASA All Sky Fireball
Network detected the first Perseid meteor of the year. (NASA/All Sky Fireball
Network)
The Perseid meteor shower is often considered to be the best meteor shower
of the year due to its high rates and pleasant late-summer temperatures. Unlike
last year’s shower coinciding with the full moon, this year’s moon will be a
waning crescent, allowing even some of the fainter meteors to be seen.
So, how many can you see?
“People in the U.S. can reasonably expect to see around 40 Perseids in the
hour just before dawn on the peak nights. That’s about one every couple of
minutes, which is not bad,” said Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid
Environment Office. “However, we are assuming you are out in the country, well
away from cities and suburbs.”
The brighter skies of suburban areas greatly reduce the rates, with 10 or
fewer expected in an hour.
You can see the Perseid meteor shower best in the Northern Hemisphere. All
you need to catch the show is a clear sky, darkness, and a bit of patience. You
don’t need to look in any particular direction; meteors can generally be seen
all over the sky.
This diagram, based on data from the NASA
Fireball Network, shows the change in the direction of the Perseid radiant with
time. This is caused by Earth’s motion about the Sun, causing the radiant to
appear to “drift” with respect to the background stars. (Danielle Moser, NASA
Meteoroid Environment Office)
The Perseids appear to radiate from a point in the constellation Perseus,
and each meteor has a similar orbit. Meteor showers take their name from the
location of their point of origin, or what is known as the radiant.
On June 1, 1993, the orbiter Discovery is shown
here being rolled into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for mating with the
external tank and twin solid rocket boosters. At the time, Discovery was being
prepared for mission STS-51, targeted for a mid-July liftoff. (NASA/JSC)
Fun fact:
The Perseid meteor shower is the only meteor shower to delay a Space
Shuttle launch. In 1993, the NASA – STS-51 launch
was delayed due to concerns about the Perseid meteor shower activity being
forecast to be extremely heavy, increasing the chance that a spacecraft in
Earth orbit could be damaged by a piece of the debris.
By Lauren Perkins
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Source: Best Meteor Shower of the Year Peaks This Weekend – Watch the Skies (nasa.gov)
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