The countless souls who watched the night sky this past week to get a glimpse of the Perseid meteor shower were not disappointed.
Hundreds of brilliant meteors streaked across the heavens as the Earth made its yearly passage through the debris field of the Swift-Tuttle comet. According to Space.com, the comet passes by every 133 years but its galactic crumbs put on quite the show.
This year’s shower put last year’s show to shame because a nearly full moon’s light in 2014 washed out the peak of the shower.
Photographers in many corners of the globe readied their extended-exposure settings to catch the brilliant movement of the Perseids.
One Russian photographer who was shooting in Denmark was quoted as saying the results were “fantastic” and there were “lots of Perseids.”
I have been outside for about 3 hours, and the results are bloody fantastic! Lots of Perseids and Northern Lights had just exploded in the sky right over my hometown.
NASA’s page dedicated to the meteor shower said that Perseids are active from July 17 to Aug. 24 and that the peak activity takes place on the 12th and 13th of August.
The meteors can travel at about 37 miles per second and, on optimal viewing nights, up to 100 meteors can be seen every hour.
Perseid gains a lot of attention partly because the meteor shower is a collection of “fireballs,” a bigger, brighter version of meteors which tend to “persist longer” than the average meteor.
Perseids are also know for their fireballs … larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.
The meteor shower is named for Perseus, the constellation from where the Perseids appear to come from. While they do not actually originate from the constellation, the relationship to Perseus helps observers to orient their view in order to see the brilliant flashes of light.
