Perseid meteors 2020 reach their peak Tuesday

Arab Weather - Sinan Khalaf - A beautiful night that astronomers await, it is Tuesday / Wednesday night, and on this night the Perseid meteor showers reach their peak activity this year in the sky of the Arab region, according to what was stated by Engineer Majed Abu Zahra, head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah

We might see 100 meteors an hour

Perseids are considered one of the best meteor showers that are monitored annually, in average they produce up to 60 meteors per hour, and there are expectations that this year will produce more than 100 meteors per hour, but in conjunction with that, the moon will be in the final squared phase, which will cause the weak meteors to blur. But Perseids are famous for producing bright meteors, but it is not known the actual number that will be monitored this year. Meteors are notoriously unpredictable, but the display is likely to remain good.

In general, most of the annual meteor showers reach their highest rates when they cross the Earth through meteorite remnants from comets and asteroids, and as those small pieces the size of pebbles collide with the upper atmosphere around the Earth at high speed, they burn at an altitude of about 70 to 100 km and appear in the form of meteors, including Perseid meteors, and if it crosses our planet during a dense meteorite gathering, a high number of meteors will be detected, but it is not known if it will happen this year or not.

The reason for its name Parshaeid meteor

When tracking the paths of Perseid meteors, they will appear to rush in front of a group of Perseid meteors, which is why they are called Perseids, knowing that there is no relationship between Perseid meteors and a Perseid meteor group, as it is just an orderliness in the sky from our perspective on Earth.

Sprinkled stars are several light years away from us, while meteors are burning in the upper atmosphere, and in the event that a meteor reaches the surface of the earth, it will be called a meteorite, but very few meteors become meteorites due to the nature of debris resulting from comets, so most of the stones Meteorites come from asteroids.

The comet "Swift Total" and its connection to the Perseids month

On the other hand, when determining the velocity and direction of the Perseids meteors, it is possible to know their path through the solar system and determine the object responsible for their production, which is the comet "Swift Total" discovered in 1862, which was the last time at its closest point to the sun in December 1992 and its next approach will be in July 2126.

Comet "Swift Total" moves in a very elongated elliptical orbit, causing it to move beyond the orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto when it is at the farthest point from the sun, while it moves closer to Earth when it is at the closest point to the sun, and this orbit makes it take 133 years to complete a cycle One around the sun, and each time it passes through the inner part of our solar system, the sun's heat heats the comet's ice, causing matter to separate from it and scatter it along its orbit.

Tips for an interesting viewer

For the best observation of Perseid meteors, the observation should be after midnight by observing the eastern horizon from a completely dark location far from the lights of cities and not from the house, and the observer must give himself at least an hour to see a meteor after he reaches the monitoring site, and the human eye needs about 20 Accurate to adapt to darkness, no need to use special equipment to see meteors.