The night sky and a few meteors. Photo by adcuz on flickr.
No, Chicken Little, it’s just a meteor shower! Sometimes called “shooting stars”, meteors are actually small bits of rock and debris that burn up as they enter Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of thousands of miles per hour.
If you’re looking in just the right spot at just the right time, you can get lucky and see meteors on almost any clear, dark night – but every year, during the second week of August, there’s a meteor shower. A meteor shower usually happens when Earth passes through the path of a comet. Comets leave behind a trail of ice, dust, and rocks that turn into meteors as they pass through the Earth’s atmosphere.
The meteor shower that takes place every August is called the Perseids and it occurs because Earth is passing through the path of the Swift-Tuttle comet. The Perseid meteor shower is named after the constellation Perseus because meteors seem to radiate out from that constellation (even though we now know that the meteors are coming from comet debris that is much closer to Earth than any of the stars in the constellation).
This year, the Perseids will peak on the night of Thursday, August 12th (and there should be an increase in the number of meteors a few days before and after the peak night). Because the moon will be setting early, the sky will be especially dark, which is the perfect condition for watching meteors!
A meteor from the Perseids shower in 2008. Photo by aresauburn on flickr.
We’ve put together a list of tips for enjoying the meteor shower:
- Find a dark place, away from city lights, to watch the sky. Parks and open spaces away from the city’s light pollution work best. Look for places that aren’t covered with trees – you want to be able to see as much of the sky as you can when you look up.
- Check earlier in the day to make sure that it won’t be overcast – even at night clouds will obstruct our view of the sky. Unfortunately, if it is cloudy, there’s not much hope for watching the meteor shower.
- Bring a blanket for everyone to lie down on – it’s a whole lot easier than craning your neck back for the whole night.
- Bring a flashlight with a red bulb (or one that’s been covered in red cellophane) for navigating around your viewing area. Turning on a regular, bright flashlight will overwhelm your eyes but using a red light will not disrupt your night vision.
- Dress for the weather – even in Central Texas, it can cool off at night. Dress comfortably, and in layers.
- Don’t use a telescope! That’s right – trying to see meteors through a telescope requires a lot of patience – you won’t be quick enough to follow (or focus on) a “shooting star”. Instead, stare up at the sky, with the widest possible view for the best chance of seeing meteors. That said, it’s always fun to bring telescopes and even binoculars to a sky gazing party – they’re great for looking at constellations, stars, planets, and the moon.
- Be patient! Your friends will probably see some meteors that you miss and you might see a meteor that no one else notices. At the Perseid’s peak, there may be upwards of 50 visible meteors per hour.
- Look for satellites. While looking for meteors, you might notice an object moving across the sky that looks like a dim, slow moving star. You’re probably looking at an artificial satellite – a object put into Earth’s orbit by humans to help with observations for weather forecasting, transmitting phone calls, or aiding in scientific research. According to NASA, there are currently about 3,000 useful satellites in orbit and an additional 6,000 pieces of space junk
Fish have been on the earth for more than 450 million years.
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