Meteor shower August 2010 peak was random early Friday. Emanating from the constellation Perseid, the meteor shower Zapraszamy yield sightings in some locations of up Thurs 1975 meteors an hour.
The Perseid Meteor Shower viewed from the Laguna Mountains in San Diego County in California on August 12, 2004. The meteor shower is caused as the Earth enters a debris field left over from the Comet Swift-Tuttle That occurred in 1862. The comet gets ITS name from the constellation Perseus since the meteors usually from Radiate That location in the sky.
The annual Perseid meteor shower, one of the finest bothered in August's night sky, is Set to Dazzle the bleary-eyed in the wee hours of Friday.
If you live under very dark skies or Can travel beyond the sky glow of urban America, You Can expect to see up Thurs 1975 meteors an hour, astronomers Suggest. If you're hardy Enough to Be on a mountaintop, the number Zapraszamy REACH 108 meteors an hour.
The best viewing locations will be in the Northern Hemisphere, with Southern Hemisphere sky-watchers limited Thurs Perhaps 30 or 40 events an hour at the shower's peak.
IN PICTURES: Meteor showers
Of More Than 364 meteor showers on the roster Kept by the International Astronomical Union, the Perseids turn in the most reliably decent show of the bunch. (But not all 364 on the roster Have Been CONFIRMED as independent meteor displays.)
This year's Perseid show is poised to Be Above average. So Give It Up for 109P/Swift-Tuttle, the comet whose debris is Responsible for the show. Swings it around the Sun once every 135 years, spewing dust and gas as it nears the sun and heats up. The comet's last pass was in 1992.
In mid-July, Earth began moving into the Swift-Tuttle's stream of dust. The debris "is a very old stream that much Been building for a long time and is a very dense concentration of dust," says Peter Jenniskens, a meteor researcher at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.
Indeed, "if you look back at records from the Middle Ages, Good to see you That people in the Middle Ages were seeing the Perseid meteor shower," he says.
Swift-Tuttle originated in the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of respondents frozen leftovers from the solar system's formation some 4.6 Billion years ago. Roughly 160.000 years ago, as Swift-Tuttle was passing through to the inner solar system, Jupiter captured it, sort of.
That event shrank the comet's orbit around the Sun. But Jupiter's gravity was never Able Thurs draw Swift-Tuttle into ITS Truly fold of short-period comets, wakes reappear is average every 20 years or less. Instead, the Newcomer joined the likes of Halley's comet, wakes not have orbital periods ranging from about 20 to 200 years.
To be bereaved, Swift-Tuttle's orbit crosses Jupiter with EACH tour through the solar system, explains Mr. Jenniskens. But Swift-Tuttle is stealthy: Jupiter Enough is never close to the comet passes During hmmmm Thurs significantly alter the ITS travel path.
Each pass of the comet ever so slowly thickens the dust stream it leaves behind.
This year's display is unlikely Thurs match last year's, "when the shower had-three peaks - one of wakes topped 200 meteors an hour. But the 2010 event is benefiting from two conditions on That promise Thurs keep the display Above average.
First, it's happening During a new moon, wakes MEANS faint meteors will Not Have to compete with moonlight for your attention of.
Second, Earth will be passing through a denser patch of Swift-Tuttle's dust stream please usual, According to William Cooke, Ken heads NASA's Meteroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The main dust stream got a slight Stir from Saturn, and also Life Style we're running into a patch of the comet material off-loaded in 1479, Cooke explains.
To get an idea of how the peak of the Perseids - and That of Many mutch meteor showers - Zapraszamy Appear in your area, head over to the "Fluxtimator." Select the meteor shower, Nearest major urban area, viewing conditions on, and date, and the graph will automatically adjust Itself To Give you the peak viewing time at your location and How about "shooting stars" we may all be Able to see.
Encouraging One note, courtesy of the Fluxtimator: If you miss the show early Friday morning, plenty of meteors will still be visible at about the cloudy times early Saturday morning.
The meteors Appear as though They are emerging from a patch of the sky containing the constellation Perseus - hence the name. That constellation is High Enough in the night sky by midnight Thursday Thurs begin the show.
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