Perseid meteor shower 2021: Where to watch it?

Sky watchers are ready to enjoy several weeks of shooting stars, as the annual Perseid meteor shower kicks off on Wednesday. Perseids occur approximately every year between the dates of July 14 and August 24, although the rain becomes more active in mid-August. According to the American Meteor Society, this year, the peak will occur around August 11-12.

The meteor shower occurs all over the sky, so anyone who wants to see it doesn't have to look in a particular direction. They only need to look up when the sky is dark. The meteor shower is also visible around the world. However, NASA claims that the Perseids are best seen in the Northern Hemisphere during the hours before sunrise.

The Perseids are considered the best meteor shower of the year. The annual phenomenon causes up to 100 meteors to pass through Earth's atmosphere every hour, travelling at speeds of up to 37 miles per second.

This speed means that meteors experience enormous amounts of heat resistance when they collide with Earth's atmospheric particles and burn into bright balls of flame that streak through the sky. The Perseids are so named because of the area of ​​the sky where they appear to come from the constellation Perseus. However, the meteors do not come from the constellation Persus.

The rain occurs in the first place due to Comet 109P / Swift-Tuttle. As the comet orbits the sun, it leaves a debris trail behind it, which Earth passes through once a year. As the Earth passes through this debris trail, comet particles come into contact with the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, producing the meteor shower.

Swift-Tuttle is a large comet, measuring about 16 miles in diameter. In 1872, it was discovered by Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle, hence the name.

Not all cometary chunks are identical. Some particles of cometary material are particularly large and can become fireballs, larger and slower-moving flashes of light compared to an average meteor streak.

According to EarthSky, the Perseids are not the only meteor shower to occur this year. The Delta Aquariid meteor shower will peak between or near July 27-30. The date means that the Perseid and Delta Aquarid rains will occur at the same time.

Later in the year, the Draconids will occur in early October, followed by the Orionids later that month and the Taurids and Leonids in November.