2007 Perseids Meteor Shower - Cloudbait Observatory

Are you ready for some … meteors?!   One of the year’s best meteor showers peaks next week, and some are saying that this year’s event could be even better than usual, possibly even peaking at two-hundred streaks per hour!

Each August, our planet passes through the ancient debris stream of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, resulting in our usual Perseids meteor shower of about one-hundred streaks per peak hour.  This year, Earth will encounter two anomalies with the Swift-Tuttle stream that some scientists believe could result in an especially prolific shower.  The first is a filament shed during the comet’s pass nearly four-hundred years ago – Earth only occasionally meets this filament.  The second is the possibility of a denser-than-usual stream due to Saturn’s gravitational influence.

With a core diameter of about 10km, Swift-Tuttle is the largest known object, and one of the oldest known comets, to regularly pass closely to our planet.  It last passed Earth in 1992, was first recorded by Chinese astronomers in 69BC, and will next pass our way in 2126.  There was a time, just a few years ago, that astronomers thought this comet might actually pass close enough to impact Earth or the Moon in the not-so-distant future.  Continued observations, however, have dispelled that concern.

The very best time to observe the Perseids will be as Earth moves through that densest part of the Swift-Tuttle debris stream – sometime around 04:00 EDT, on the morning of August 12.  However, the hours before and following that peak hour should also provide plenty of bright streaks.  Perseids typically appear as very bright, fast-moving streaks; and of course, their paths originate from the constellation Perseus.

As with most meteor showers, the general public are encouraged to share their observations of the Perseids.  This information aids scientists in their continued studies of the Swift-Tuttle stream, as well as meteor showers in general.  Participation is as simple as counting streaks and noting characteristics – such as brightness, speed, and trajectory – and it’s an especially fun way to contribute to science.

Many astronomy clubs also hold special observing events during the Perseids.  This year, the Newbury Astronomical Society is hosting the first-ever Twitter Meteor Watch, encouraging Tweeps (or twitter-ers) to tweet real-time observations and images.  While it is originally a U.K. event, Newbury AS is calling for continued observations across the globe in hopes of creating an international Perseids party.  If you’ve been hesitant to join the Twitter community, this might be the perfect excuse to finally give it a try!

If you do plan to observe this year’s Perseids shower, be prepared by finding a dark, safe, and comfortable viewing location before nightfall, and don’t forget to pack chairs or blankets, a sweater, bug spray, a red-filtered flashlight, and of course, a notebook and pen to record your observations.  And, if inclement weather just won’t allow visual observations, you can always listen to the Perseids directly from your computer!

Tags: Meteors, Perseids, Swift-Tuttle

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Citizen Science, Meteor Showers, Night Sky, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.