Animation: Perseid Meteor Shower

Animation: Perseid Meteor Shower

Visualization Credit:
Ian Webster;
Data:
NASA,
CAMS,
Peter Jenniskens
(SETI Institute)

Explanation:
Where do Perseid meteors come from?

Mostly small bits of stony grit,
Perseid meteoroids were once expelled from
Comet Swift-Tuttle and continue to follow this comet’s orbit as they slowly disperse.

The featured animation depicts the entire meteoroid stream as it orbits
our Sun.

When the Earth nears this stream, as it does every year, the
Perseid Meteor Shower occurs.

Highlighted as bright in the animation,
comet debris
this size is usually so dim it is practically undetectable.

Only a small fraction of this debris will enter the Earth’s atmosphere, heat up and
disintegrate brightly.

Tonight and the next few nights promise some of the better skies to view
the Perseid shower
as well as other active showers
because the
first quarter moon will be
absent from
the sky from
midnight onward.