Perseid Meteor Shower to Light Up East Asian Skies
August 12, 2009
The annual Perseid meteor shower will be at its peak tonight, during the wee hours of August 13. According to the Sky and Telescope publication the showers will be at their peak at 1800 GMT (2 am Mongolian time), with dozens of meteors falling through the atmosphere.
The meteor shower is a result of the Earth making its annual passage through space debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle from our close encounter with it in 1992. The most intense meteor showers occurred during the early 1990s just after the passing of the comet, with hundreds of meteors an hour visible.
The meteor shower gets its name from the constellation Perseus. As the debris rains down it looks as if it’s originating from the constellation.
Source: World News Australia, www.sbs.com.au/news.