Tomorrow night will be a stargazer’s delight as the annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak.
The shooting star show is caused by debris from the trail of the Swift Tuttle comet.
“A comet is really just a dirty snowball,” says Blair Stunder, president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Prince George Centre.
“So as it comes into the solar system, it warms up and the ice gas particles start to melt, releas[ing] debris into its trail. We run into that. It’s not them hitting us. We’re hitting the debris trail.”
The Prince George Observatory will be opening its doors to the public tomorrow evening at 9 for a viewing of the Perseid meteor shower.
If you’d rather watch the show outdoors, Stunder says you should find an area with little light pollution and a good view of the north eastern horizon.
“You can also tune your AM or FM radio to some place on the band where there is no radio station and you’ll hear little pops and hisses. The streak you see is actually atmosphere being ionized from the heat and it will create a little static pop and hiss.”
The meteor shower gets its name from the fact that it appears to come from the Perseus constellation.
You can find our video about the Perseid meteors here.
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