The
annual Perseid Meteor Shower will occur Saturday night and Sunday
morning. If you're in the right spot, away from light pollution, you can
see up to 100 meteors an hour!
The Perseids have been
observed for at least 2,000 years and are associated with the comet
Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. Each year in
August, the Earth passes through a cloud of the comet's debris. These
bits of ice and dust -- most over 1,000 years old -- burn up in the
Earth's atmosphere to create one of the best meteor showers of the year.
The Perseids can be seen all over the sky, but the best viewing
opportunities will be across the northern hemisphere. Those with sharp
eyes will see that the meteors radiate from the direction of the
constellation Perseus.
NASA will be up all night,
with a live chat led by astronomer Bill Cooke and his team from the
Meteoroid Environment Office discussing the Perseids. And if you have to
work inside or have too much cloud cover to see the meteor shower, they
will have a live stream online.
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