The peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower is here! According to NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke, the Perseids are perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year. Typical rates are about 80 meteors an hour, but in outburst years (such as back in 2016), the rate can be between 150-200 meteors an hour.
The meteor shower’s peak was last night (Sunday), but the night before and the night after will both have good rates. Cooke said the show would be slightly better in the predawn hours of August 12th, but there’d be a decent show both nights.
Earth will pass through the path of Comet Swift-Tuttle from July 17th to August 24th, with the shower’s peak—when Earth passes through the densest, dustiest area—occurring on August 12th. That means you’ll see the most meteors near that peak in the shortest amount of time, but you can still catch some action from the famed meteor shower before or after that point.
Why the Perseids Meteor Shower Happens
The Perseid Meteor Shower results from Earth passing through debris (bits of ice and rock) left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle that passed close to Earth in 1992. Most of the Perseids are very small—about the size of a grain of sand. Almost none of the meteors hit the ground, but if it did, that’s when it’s called a meteorite. As Earth orbits the sun, it travels through various streams of comet debris, producing the meteor shower.
If you can’t watch it in person, you can watch it online for free courtesy of astrophysicist Gianluca Masi of The Virtual Telescope Project. You can watch it at Space.com or on their YouTube channel.
Yes, there is a Gardening Connection!
To make this blog a little about gardening, I will watch for the meteor shower while eating a bowl of tomatoes from my Sun Gold tomato plant.