Stargazers can catch up to 20 meteors an hour this week, NASA says.
Once a year, from mid-July to late August, Earth passes through a cosmic junk heap that pelts our planet with thousands of tiny space rocks no wider than a grain of sand. We call this annual event the Perseid meteor shower — or simply the Perseids.
The Perseids are one of the most popular and consistent meteor showers of the year. They occur each summer when our planet passes through the vast tail of debris dropped by the comet Swift-Tuttle, which made its last close approach to Earth in 1992. While the Perseids last several weeks, the greatest spectacle begins when Earth passes through the densest part of comet Swift-Tuttle's debris cloud. On a typical year, stargazers can expect to see about 60 meteors per hour during the shower's peak, according to NASA. This year, that number will be considerably lower, as the full Sturgeon Moon will obscure some of those falling rocks with its bright light.
Humans have been watching the Perseids for thousands of years. In 1862, two astronomers — Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle — independently discovered a massive near-Earth comet, now known as Comet Swift-Tuttle. A few years later, another astronomer realized that this comet produced the Perseid meteor shower, according to NASA.
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