Meteor shower over Austin - How to see the Perseids in 2024
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- One of the best meteor showers of the year has arrived. The Perseid meteor shower runs July 17 through Aug. 24, peaking on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12.
During the meteor shower's peak, up to 100 meteors per hour can be spotted in the night sky.
The meteor shower appears to come from the constellation Perseus, giving us its easy-to-misspell name.
According to NASA, the Perseids are the best meteor shower of the year, with "swift and bright" meteors. The long tails of these meteors make them easy to see in the night sky.
How do you see the Perseids?
The meteor shower can be seen in the Northern Hemisphere. NASA recommends looking to the sky during the pre-dawn hours. Get as far from city lights as possible when viewing them.
“Generally speaking, you kind of want to face yourself sort of northeast, because that’s where the meteors will appear to come from,” Lara Eakins with the University of Texas' astronomy department said.
Meteor showers in July
As luck would have it, the Perseids aren't the only meteor shower. The Delta Aquariids will peak on July 30 and the Alpha Capricornids will peak on July 31.
The Delta Aquariids can peak with 15 to 20 meteors per hour. Alpha Capricornids produce a paltry two to five meteors per hour.
Origins of a meteor shower
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the tail of a comet. Tiny particles of dust left behind by a comet form a trail in its wake. When Earth passes through this tail, those particles burn up in our atmosphere.
The Perseids are formed from the Swift-Tuttle Comet. It passes through our solar system every 133 years. The last time it was here was in 1993.