Predicted to appear on the weekend of August 11, 2024, the Perseid meteor rain will bring a pleasant visual touch to the observer.
Some Perseids are expected to appear at night when the sky is dark, so the first quarter of the moon will sunset at around 23.20 local time. And the best time to see Perseid is at 23.00 or midnight until dawn sunsets tomorrow morning.
Origins of Perseid Meteor Rain
The Perseids originate from the Perseus conjecture and are considered to be one of the best meteor showers that peak in mid-August every year.
This is one of the most frequent meteor showers, with 100 per hour. The characteristic characteristics of Perseids are usually fast and bright and leave traces of light and color behind them as they cross the night sky.
The origin of the Perseid was caused by debris that collided with the atmosphere and came from a comet called 109/Swift-Turtle.
NASA revealed that the rain of the Perseid comet takes 133 years to orbit the Sun once.
Geovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer, is considered to be the inventor of the relationship between comets and meteor rays. In 1992, the Swift-Tuttle comet last visited the inner solar system.
Astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Turtle discovered the comet in 1862 and it has a nucleus of 26 km in diameter. Research in 2013 revealed that the Perseid meteor rain produced the most number of fireballs in a single meteor rain.
How to See Live
To be able to see this sight of the sky, one has to find a place far from the city because light and air pollution are likely to block the sight.
Perseid meteors can be seen from anywhere in the northern hemisphere, and for meteor rain lovers who can’t see them in person, astrophysicist Gianluca Masi offers a live broadcast via the Virtual Telescope Project channel.