- The Perseid meteor shower, which began in July, will be visible to the naked eye from midnight to dawn, especially in the northern hemisphere, depending on local weather conditions.
- Meteor Shower is also popularly known as ‘Shooting Star’ by layman.
- The Perseids are debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet, which orbits the Sun every 133 years.
- As the Earth passes through this debris cloud, gravity pulls the particles, creating the meteor shower.
- Although Swift-Tuttle was once thought to pose a collision threat in 2126, further calculations confirmed Earth is safe for at least two millennia.
- The Perseids shower poses no threat, as most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, though some may produce small fireballs.
- During its peak, the shower can produce over 60 meteors per hour.
| Meteor: A meteor is the streak of light produced when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and burns up due to friction. Meteorite: A meteorite is a fragment of a meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and lands on the Earth’s surface. Meteoroid: A meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic body in space, smaller than an asteroid. When it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it can become a meteor. Asteroid: It is a small rocky or metallic body that orbits the Sun, primarily found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids can vary in size from a few meters to hundreds of kilometres in diameter. Comet: A comet is a celestial object composed of ice, dust, and rocky material. When it approaches the Sun, it develops a glowing coma and often a tail, due to the sublimation of its icy components. |
Dig Deeper: Read about OSIRIS-REX which is the first mission to touch down on the Asteroid Bennu.
