\n<\/p>\n
It is time for stargazers to dig out the deckchairs to try to enjoy what is considered to be one of the best meteor showers of the year.<\/p>\n
The Perseids are expected to peak on the night of 12 August, although they have been active from mid-July and will continue to be visible for a further couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
The annual event, which is most visible in the northern hemisphere, arises as comet debris burns up in Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach year, Earth passes through the material shed by an ancient celestial body, Comet 109P\/Swift-Tuttle, which is estimated to be well over 5bn years old \u2013 older even than Earth,\u201d said Dr Richard Parker, an astrophysicist at the University of Sheffield.<\/p>\n
He said the comet visited the inner solar system every 133 years, and would next make its closest approach to Earth in 2126.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotably, the comet is the largest object that approaches Earth \u2013 but thankfully, it\u2019s not predicted to come dangerously close for thousands of years,\u201d Parker added.<\/p>\n
The Perseids arise because debris left by the comet lingers in space.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we orbit the Sun year after year, we keep hitting into it at the same time and from the same orientation,\u201d said Dr Ed Bloomer, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. \u201cSo from our point of view, standing on the Earth, it looks as if [the Perseids] come from that same part of the sky every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n
This radiant appears to be in the constellation of Perseus \u2013 giving the meteor shower its name.<\/p>\n
Perseus is now visible in the north-eastern sky. But for the best chance of seeing the meteors, Bloomer said it was worth turning towards the east-south-east, looking towards Saturn, or more to the north, looking towards the constellation of Ursa Major.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo maximise your chances, if you turn slightly away from Perseus, you\u2019re likely to catch them out the corner of your eye,\u201d he said, noting that it was easier to see in low light conditions with peripheral vision.<\/p>\n
With the peak occurring just days after a full moon, experts have said fainter meteors might be tricky to see this year.<\/p>\n
Bloomer said it was best to head out late at night to as dark a location as possible, with as clear a horizon as possible, and wait up to 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust.<\/p>\n
He recommended viewing with friends, but said individual meteors might flare up for only a second, or even less.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where you can\u2019t really spot it, turn to somebody beside you, tap them on the shoulder and try and get them to look at the same part of the sky. It\u2019s done by then,\u201d he said. \u201cSo in a way, it is quite a solitary thing, because you just have to sit and have your eyes open and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is time for stargazers to dig out the deckchairs to try to enjoy what is considered to be one of the best meteor showers of the year. The Perseids are expected to peak on the night of 12 August, although they have been active from mid-July and will continue to be visible for a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[3598,4991,6683,8256,478,1581,3627,1569],"class_list":{"0":"post-15528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-meteor","9":"tag-meteors","10":"tag-peak","11":"tag-perseids","12":"tag-prepare","13":"tag-shower","14":"tag-stargazers","15":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}