The skies are expected to shimmer with a “natural firework display” tonight as a meteor shower crosses into the earth’s atmosphere, astronomy experts have predicted.
Although the Perseids meteor shower is an annual event, the Royal Astronomical Society in the UK believes prospects for this year’s showing are particularly good and could mean up to 60 shooting stars an hour.
Stargazers will need only their own eyes to enjoy the natural occurrence, which is a result of material falling from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last passed near the Earth in 1992.
“Comet Swift-Tuttle won’t be visiting our neck of the woods again until the year 2125, but every year we get this beautiful reminder as the Earth ploughs through the debris it leaves in its orbit,” said Professor Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen’s University Belfast.
“Every meteor is a speck of comet dust vaporising as it enters our atmosphere at 36 miles per second. What a glorious way to go.”
The best display will last from late this evening through to early tomorrow morning, with weather conditions expected to be favourable.
Astronomy Irelandare asking people to take part in a Nationwide Perseid Watch.
They say you don’t need a telescope or binoculars, but can simply go outside and look up.
The organisation said that the best night to watch is tonight, Monday, August 12, but you can observe on any night around this date.
Meteors, commonly known as shooting stars, are the result of small particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed.
These heat the air around them, causing the characteristic streak of light seen from the ground.
They mostly appear as fleeting flashes lasting less than a second, but the brightest ones leave behind trails of vaporised gases and glowing air molecules that may take a few seconds to fade.
The Perseids meteor shower is active each year from around mid-July to late-August, but for most of that period only a few meteors an hour will be visible.