Overview
- The Perseid shower will be active from July 17 through Aug. 24 and will peak on the night of Aug. 12–13, when observers under ideal dark skies can see roughly 50 to 100 meteors per hour.
- This year’s peak falls on a new moon, which will make skies unusually dark and improve visibility for most viewers.
- Parts of Greenland, Iceland, Portugal, Russia and Spain lie in the total solar eclipse path on Aug. 12, and people inside totality may have a brief chance to spot Perseid meteors during the roughly two minutes of darkness.
- The Perseids come from debris left by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, whose roughly 16-mile nucleus produces tiny, fast particles that burn up in the atmosphere at about 133,200 mph and rarely reach the ground.
- Space agencies and observers are urged to monitor the shower because even very small meteoroids can damage satellites and crewed spacecraft, and planners recommend heading to dark, rural sites, giving eyes 20–30 minutes to adapt, and watching after midnight into the pre-dawn hours with no telescope needed.