Watch Meteor Showers Light up Dubai Skies
- Dubai Astronomy Group will be hosting a public event between 11th and 13th August, as one of the most reliable meteor showers of the year, the Perseid meteor shower, goes underway when Earth moves into the debris field of the comet Swift-Tuttle
- The 2017 Perseid meteor shower is predicted produce the greatest number of meteors on the mornings of 11th-13th August
- At the ‘Summer Celestial Spectacle’ organised by the Dubai Astronomy Group, one can expect to see around 100 to 150 meteors per hour on the peak night in a dark sky, at Al Thuraya Astronomy Centre in Mushrif Park
- The event will provide visitors an opportunity to look through Dubai Astronomy Group telescopes at other celestial objects including; Saturn, stars, globular clusters, nebula and other deep sky objects
- Meteor showers take place when Earth passes through a comet’s debris trail, wherein the tiny particles that are shed from the comet hit Earth’s atmosphere and are vaporized, creating bright streaks across the sky
- Every year, from around 17th July to 24th August, Earth crosses the orbital path of comet Swift-Tuttle, the parent of the Perseid meteor shower
- The bits and pieces from comet Swift-Tuttle slam into the Earth’s upper atmosphere at some 210,000 kilometers (130,000 miles) per hour, lighting up the nighttime with fast-moving Perseid meteors
- The Perseid meteor will be visible across the Northern Hemisphere, and is expected to peak globally on 12th August, 2017
- The best recorded meteor show of all time was the Leonids in 1833, when there were up to 100,000 meteors per hour
