“Next we move into the August Perseids , which is perhaps the most popular meteor shower of all,” Cooke said. “The Perseids will peak on Aug. 12, and this year they will be in what we call outburst — their rates will double, because we’re running into more material left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle.”
This year, instead of seeing about 80 Perseids per hour, he added, we may be able to see more than 150 — up to as many as 200 meteors per hour. The last outburst of this kind occurred in 2009, and the one before that in 1993. The shower is mostly viewable in the Northern Hemisphere as the meteors burn up in the atmosphere traveling at 37 miles (59 km) per second, leaving vivid streaks behind them in the sky.
Unfortunately there is a slight catch: interference from the moon, which will be full six days after the shower’s peak. Surrounding the Aug. 12 peak, the meteor shower will be active from July 17 – Aug. 24 — the comet tail Earth is passing through is quite wide.
Only certain meteor showers outburst — some on regular cycles, like the Leonids (every 33 years), and some irregularly, like the Perseids. Comet Swift-Tuttle swoops into the inner solar system every 133 years, which means its trail of dust passes by Jupiter. The gas giant’s gravity causes the material in Comet Swift-Tuttle’s tail to clump up, Cooke said, and when Earth encounters those clumps on a given year it sees a vastly increased number of meteors.
For many years, scientists weren’t able to tell when these spectacular outbursts would occur. “We are able to predict them now because we have superfast, superfancy computers sitting on our desktops,” Cooke said. “We’ve only been able to predict Perseid outbursts since the late 1990s; we had to wait for computers to get fast enough to do it.”
Now, we can benefit from that early warning: Skywatchers can plan to get out to a dark area, enjoy the summer air and catch this year’s epic view. [Amazing Perseid Meteor Shower Photos ]
NEXT: Where to spot the Perseids, and some more viewing tips
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