Who discovered the Perseid meteor shower?
Perseid meteors are particles from Comet 109/P Swift-Tuttle. American astronomers Lewis Swift of Marathon, New York, and Horace Tuttle, at Harvard Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, discovered the comet in July 1862, when its brightness was magnitude 7.5.
How old are the Perseids?
The first record of the Perseid meteor shower comes from a Chinese manuscript written in A.D. 36. The Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli linked the Perseid shower to Comet Swift-Tuttle in 1866, four years after the comet was detected by modern astronomers.
What day is the Perseid meteor shower?
The Perseids are one of the brighter meteor showers of the year. They occur every year between July 17 and August 24 and tend to peak around August 9-13.
What constellation is the Perseid meteor shower?
constellation Perseus
The radiant point for the Perseid meteor shower is in the constellation Perseus. But you don’t have to find a shower’s radiant point to see meteors. The meteors will be flying in all parts of the sky.
What comet caused the Perseids?
Swift-Tuttle
The Perseids happen every year. Their parent comet – Swift-Tuttle – takes about 130 years to orbit the sun once. It last rounded the sun in the early 1990s and is now far away. But we see the Perseids each year, when Earth intersects the comet’s orbit, and debris left behind by Swift-Tuttle enters our atmosphere.
What causes meteor showers like the Perseids?
What causes the Perseids? This beloved, annual sky spectacle is caused by the comet Swift-Tuttle. Comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest object known to repeatedly pass by Earth; its nucleus is about 16 miles (26 kilometers) wide.
What do the Perseids look like?
The Perseids will appear as quick, small streaks of light: they get their name because they look like they’re coming from the direction of the constellation Perseus (near Aries and Taurus in the night sky), but Perseids in that area can be hard to spot from the perspective of Earth.
Can you see the Perseid meteor shower in Australia?
When is the best time to see it in Australia? Start watching for these meteors in early August. Their numbers will gradually increase. They are predicted to peak on the night between August 11 and 12 but try the nights before and after, too, from late night until dawn.