Perseid meteor shower peaks early Sunday
The annual Perseid meteor shower will begin Saturday, with the peak occurring in the early hours of Sunday morning local time. The number of visible meteors is generally lower than during December’s Geminid meteor shower, but the Perseids are frequently more observed because they occur during warmer weather and in a vacation month.
The shower gets its name because it appears to originate in the constellation Perseus, but the stars have nothing to do with it. Meteors are actually fine bits of dust that originate within our solar system. Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the dust belts. The Perseid meteor shower is caused by remnants of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which passed close to Earth in 1992, but won’t approach closely again until 2125. The shower was particularly abundant in the years surrounding the comet’s last close approach, but enough dust remains behind to give a good show.
(Source: crookedindifference)
