This NASA sky map shows the location in the
northern sky where the Perseid meteor shower will appear to radiate from
in 2012. The Perseid meteor shower peaks every August and appears to
fly out of the constellation Perseus.
By Geoff Gaherty
Starry Night Education writer
One of the most pleasant treats on a warm summer night is to lie
out under a starry sky and try to see a few shooting stars, or meteors.
Luckily, right now is a great time to try to see meteors in the night
sky.
Any night this week you will have a good chance of seeing the annual Perseid meteor shower.
These objects are tiny bits of rock and debris from an old comet, which
is named Swift-Tuttle after the astronomers who discovered it in 1862.Every year in early August, Earth passes through the comet Swift-Tuttle's orbit and sweeps up some of this debris. As the tiny rocks encounter the thin upper atmosphere of the Earth, the air is heated to incandescence and we see a rapid streak of light.
MORE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48571722/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.UCL-svkXvXs
Sources: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Space.com, NBC News
gaw
Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
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