THE METEORS ARE HERE!

August means starting school for many of us, but for everyone around the world, it is the month of the Perseid Meteor showers. Meteors, sometimes called Shooting Stars, look like bright streaks of light across the sky. We can’t see them during the day because the sun is too bright. This year should be a good year for seeing meteors because the moon is in its waning crescent phase, which means a darker sky. The source of the shower is Comet Swift-Tuttle. Both Earth and the comet orbit (move in a path) around the Sun. Although the comet is nowhere near Earth, bits of the comet's tail gets in Earth's orbit. These tiny bits of comet dust hit Earth's atmosphere traveling 132,000 mph creating bright streaks of light as they burn. Because Swift-Tuttle's meteors fly out of the constellation Perseus, they are called Perseids. For more information and pictures open the Space link: Meteors: Great Perseids-NASA Science.