Table showing how many meteors will be seen per hour.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA
Watch Out for the Meteors!
News story originally written on August 10, 1999
This week's solar eclipse isn't the only thing to watch! The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak on August 12-13, 1999. There could be as many as 150 "shooting stars" per hour. Scientists say the best time to see this spectacular event is a few hours before dawn.
These bright flashes of light will seem to start from the constellation Perseus. It is best to lay down on the ground and face north to see the shower. Although they appear to come from the same point in space, they will be visible all over the sky.
Meteors are small fragments that broke off a comet. This particular shower came from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun once every 135 years. Typical meteors are the size of a grain of sand. These meteors average 130,000 miles per hour! But don't worry, the particles burn up long before they reach Earth.
The shower will be visible for most of the Northern Hemisphere. If you live below the equator, I'm afraid that very little, if any at all, will be seen. Fortunately, NASA will provide a live broadcast of the event on the web. They'll fly a balloon into the stratosphere with a video camera. So, no matter where you live, you can witness one of the more fascinating astronomical events!
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