Perseid meteor shower: Look to the skies this week

[Jazzy]

The Perseid meteor shower – Mother Nature’s answer to fireworks – should be particularly spectacular this year.

The annual shower should be more visible thanks to extra-dark skies, which are expected to create optimal stargazing conditions, astronomers said.

The Perseids will hit a peak overnight on Wednesday next week, with up to 100 shooting stars per hour will streaking across the sky. Pretty impressive, no?

Because the Moon is approaching its darkest phase, it will not interfere with meteor-watching, according to experts.

‘It’s going to be a spectacular show this year,’ astronomer Morgan Hollis of the Royal Astronomical Society, ‘You’ll be able to a see a lot more than normal.’

The mid-July to mid-August light show comes from the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle, which has a really fancy name and swings around the Solar System every 130 years or so, depositing debris in Earth’s orbit as it ventures near the Sun.

As Earth races around the Sun, these grains smash into the atmosphere at about 60 kilometres (37 miles) per second, which is why we see flashes of light.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a telescope handy, you won’t need any special technology to watch the Perseids unfold.

You can expect the best view a wide open space away from tall buildings or trees, and with as little artificial light as possible.

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Oh my gosh, how beautiful. I hope I get to see this!