In the next days, they can be seen again in the night sky: The Perseids. Every year anew the luminous projectiles come at the nightly Horizon again and lure people outside until late at night. This year, the conditions are as good as rare, because there will be cloudless nights ahead and thus you have a clear view of the spectacle in the sky.
Table of contents
Every Year Again: The Perseids
The Perseids are a swarm of the smallest Meteorites that circle in a fixed orbit through our solar system and return every year at the beginning of August. Actually, the Perseids are the tail of a comet. Swift-Tuttle is called this and left us a large tail from Particles that crosses the orbit of our earth every year. A part of these particles hits our atmosphere, gets hot, and burns up completely. And this is exactly what we call a shooting star.
Particularly Favorable Prospects This Year
This year several things come together that make the outlook for the Perseids seem doubly beautiful. Besides the fact that the nights should be very clear this week, but also that we currently have a new moon, that is, the moon is barely visible and rises very late in the night sky, which makes it gloomy and thus no other light source in the sky interferes with the view of the Perseids. By the way, these are not the biggest shooting star showers on earth – in December there are still the Geminids, but then it is not so nice and warm outside at night.
Explanation Of The Difficult Words
Horizon is another word for heaven.
Meteorites are small pieces of ice or rock flying through space.
Particles are another word for small particles.
Photo: clearviewstock/bigstockphoto.com