Amateur astronomers will be entitled to a sparkling show on Tuesday evening, the annual rain of meteor of the Perseids reaching its peak.
NASA indicates that the meteor rain started last month and that the celestial event is expected to arrive at its climax Tuesday evening and Wednesday, before ending on August 23.
The space agency specifies that the Perseids are more visible in the northern hemisphere before dawn, but that it is sometimes possible to observe these colored cosmic light streaks from 10 p.m.
According to NASA, around 50 to 100 meteors are observed per hour during the rain. The meteors cross the sky about 59 kilometers per second.
The American space agency claims that each meteor of the Perseids is a tiny fragment of the comet Swift-Tuttle, 26 kilometers wide, which revolves around the sun every 133 years.
NASA stresses that meteor rain occurs after the earth crosses the comet’s debris, allowing meteors to collide with our atmosphere and create stars.
