SHOOTING STARS. The Perseid meteor shower, star of the summer, will soon be observable. On what date and under what conditions of observation?
[Updated July 11, 2023 5:28 PM] The Perseids put on a much-anticipated shooting star show every summer after Night of the Stars! The Perseids are debris from comet Swift-Tuttle that passed close to the Sun in 1992, which our blue planet passes through every year. The observation of the Perseids will start on Monday July 17 and will continue until August 24 with a peak during the night of Friday August 12 to Saturday August 13. Then discover the other most remarkable meteor showers that appear in the sky throughout the year, in our file below.
Qu’est-ce que les Perséides ?
Made up of debris from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, the Perseid meteor shower is the most famous of the year because it is one of the most active. This meteor shower in the constellation of Perseus spans from July 17 to August 24, with peak activity on the night of August 12-13. It is the most spectacular of them all, with 100 observable shooting stars per hour, an average of one shooting star per minute!
No danger or need for special equipment! Shooting stars are visible to everyone with the naked eye. So no need to get out the binoculars or the telescope, given the high speed at which fireballs pass through the Earth’s atmosphere (an average of 50 km/second). About a quarter of shooting stars leave visible trails for several seconds. To be able to observe a shower of shooting stars in an optimal way, the sky must not be obscured by clouds, or by light pollution. To find your way around more easily, you can use a mobile application such as Sky Tonight available on Google Play or the App Store, which will allow you to identify the constellations and their position in the sky.
After the Perseids, several major stellar rendezvous of shooting stars take place during the 2023/2024 calendar. Check out the most notable meteor showers that appear in the sky throughout the year, in chronological order of appearance below: