Meteor shower set to light up Sussex skies this weekend

Sussex stargazers will be hoping for enough gaps in the clouds this weekend (August 12/13) as the Perseid meteor shower could light up the night sky.
Perseid meteor shower PPP-140813-114652001Perseid meteor shower PPP-140813-114652001
Perseid meteor shower PPP-140813-114652001

Named after the Perseus constellation, this annual galactic event takes place every August when “Earth ventures through trails of debris left behind by an ancient comet”, according to NASA.

This year’s Perseid meteor shower will be the debris from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle and will give stargazers a glimpse of numerous meteors, or ‘shooting stars’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Set to travel through the sky at 132,000 miles per hour in a north-easterly direction, the Perseid meteors can peak at anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit as they race through the sky.

“At that speed, even a smidgen of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it collides with Earth’s atmosphere,” says NASA.

But don’t worry about the meteor shower battering earth any time soon as most burn 50 miles above the planet.

Related topics: