The Perseids Meteor Shower
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
What is The Perseids Meteor Shower
The Perseids are a meteor shower that associates with the comet named, Swift-Tuttle. The comet Swift-Tuttle is a periodic comet, which is a comet with an orbital period that of less than 200 years, this comet has an orbital period of 133 years!
It was discovered by these two men independently, Lewis Swift on July 16, 1862 and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on July 19, 1862, Hence why they call it Swift-Tuttle. In 1992 it made another appearance, seen by a Japanese astronomer named Tsuruhiko Kiuchi, being able to see it with binoculars.
The comets solid nucleus is about 26 kilometers across, being around 16 miles across, which is much larger than the comet that was said to extinct the dinosaurs, over 65 million years ago.
The Perseids are called “The Perseids” because of the area and point they appear to come, which happens to be the constellation or asterism, Perseus. The Shower ranks up to be the all-time favorite meteor shower of the year.
The stream of debris that stretches along the orbit of the comet is called the Perseids cloud. This cloud is all the debris ejected or broken off the comet over its 133 year trip.
The Perseids shower is visible in mid-July, with its activity at its peak between the 9th to the 14th of august. The Perseids are more visible at predawn hours, so just before night time, and because of the comets orbit location the Perseids shower is more visible in the northern hemisphere, however in the southern hemisphere, you will see maybe a third of what you would in the northern.
If you are lucky enough, around mid-evening, there is a chance a very rare, but very beautiful meteor will shoot out called the “Earthgrazer” The Earthgrazer is a very long, slow and colorful meteor that travels horizontally across the night sky.
I sadly have not witnessed the shower yet, because every year I have tried it has been too cloudy to see clearly. However I imagine it would be an amazing display.
Here’s a cool video of the Perseids meteor shower, on august 12th 2013.
What do I think of the Perseids Meteor Shower?
From what I have heard, and seen on YouTube, it looks like it would be amazing to watch, I do hope I get to see a shower at some point, clouds and light pollution are not your friends for this.
I hope you get to see the Perseids meteor shower in your life; I would be stoked to see one myself, next year maybe.
This Blog was written by my son, Jesse Ranson.