The highly anticipated Perseids meteor shower will kick off this week, promising to be one of the standout celestial events of 2025. Widely regarded as the best meteor shower of the year by NASA, the Perseids hold great popularity among stargazers. The 2025 Perseid meteor shower is scheduled to commence on Thursday, July 17, and is expected to continue for several weeks, wrapping up by at least Aug. 23 as confirmed by NASA and the American Meteor Society. The peak viewing period for the meteor shower is anticipated to be from Aug. 12-13, although the brightness of the moon, at 84% full, may affect visibility.
For optimal viewing of the Perseids, NASA recommends early morning observation, preferably before dawn, in the Northern Hemisphere. However, on occasion, the meteors can also be spotted as early as 10 p.m. in the night sky. NASA highlights that the Perseids shower is among the most abundant with an average of 50 to 100 meteors visible per hour. The warm summer nights provide ideal conditions for sky watchers to enjoy this spectacle comfortably. Noteworthy are the distinctive long “wakes” of color and light produced by Perseids as they traverse Earth’s atmosphere. The meteor shower is also known for its impressive fireballs – larger explosions of light and color, which can linger longer than a typical meteor streak, owing to their origin from larger cometary material particles.
The Perseids meteor shower is a result of Earth passing through remnants of space debris left by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle during its orbit around the sun. As this debris interacts with Earth’s atmosphere, it disintegrates, forming vibrant streaks in the sky. Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, last observed in the inner solar system in 1992, takes approximately 133 years to complete its orbit around the sun. Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli was the first to link this comet to the Perseids meteor shower in 1865. Despite appearing to emanate from the Perseus constellation, the meteors are not actually originating from this specific area.
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