Meteor Shower Peaks August 11-12th

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The annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks August 11-12th, 2009, can appear in any part of the night sky, but the tails of the meteors all point back to their origin in the constellation Perseus.


This impressive spectacle appears to originate from a point called a "radiant" in the constellation of Perseus - hence the name Perseid.

"Earth passes through the densest part of the debris stream sometime between the 11th or 12th of August. Then, you could see dozens of meteors per hour streaking through the night sky," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.


The rock and dust fragments which cause the shower were left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle when it was last near our Sun. The comet orbits the Sun once every 130 years and last swept through our inner Solar System in 1992. Sphere: Related Content