08/17/2022
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s a meteor shower!
Every year around the middle of August, the Perseid meteor shower hits the peak, marked by what looks like stars streaking across the sky along their celestial journey. But what is a meteor shower? And why aren’t there space rocks everywhere?
A meteor shower is caused by a cluster of debris—rocks and ice—hurtling through the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, heating up as they meet resistance in the atmosphere, flaring up so much that they become bright enough for us to see. Most of these are small and burn up before ever coming close to the ground, the few that do make it down being called meteorites. The debris that becomes the meteors comes from comets. In this case, it’s comet 109P or Swift Tuttle, which is currently hanging out in the constellation Hydra. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, Hydra will next be visible between January and May. As the earth revolves around the sun, it goes through the orbits of objects like Swift Tuttle, where we run into the debris that becomes our meteors.
Unfortunately, this year the peak of the shower will be the same time as the full moon, but the meteors themselves can be seen up until August 24. Between now and then, grab a telescope, or just find someplace dark, and take a look up towards the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus to see what you can see!
Photo by Lily La Regina/Friends of Acadia
Alt text: Stars revolve around a central point in the sky, creating a series of concentric white and blue circles streaking across the sky. The foreground shows dark trees and branches blocking out portions of the stars.
Link: https://www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/stargazing.htm
