It’s been a big year for skywatchers, but if the ring of fire eclipse and the transit of Venus weren’t enough for you, you still have the year’s best meteor shower to look forward to. The Weather Channel explains.
“Well, it is that time of the year for the Perseid meteor shower. And this should be quite a show. We’re talking about 100 shooting stars per hour radiating from the constellation Perseus.”
The Perseids are the left-behind dust of the comet Swift-Tuttle. Every year in mid-August, the Earth passes through the dust trail and the night sky becomes packed with meteors. But a writer for the Los Angeles Times says not to worry: these meteors aren’t big, just fast.
“Most of the observed meteors are sand-sized grains of dust, not large rocks. As they enter Earth’s atmosphere at 134,000 mph, they compress air, creating a white-hot shock wave, which is visible from the ground.”
Newsy has the full transcript
