Skywatchers get ready... two days left to Perseid Meteor Shower 2017

The peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower is coming in just a few days, and two events will be hosted this year on 12 August at Maltese vantage points that can help you take in this celestial feast.

One of the events will be hosted by the Astronomical Society of Malta together with the University of Malta’s ISSA (Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy) at Migra l-Ferha, in Rabat.

The other event is being hosted by the Earth Systems Association and the Science Students’ Society (S-Cubed), atop Dingli Cliffs by the St Mary Magdalen church.

(Skywatchers planning to camp out should bring something comfortable to sit on, some snacks and some bug spray…)

NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke told Space.com that the Perseids as perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year. “Typical rates are about 80 meteors an hour, but in outburst years, such as in 2016, the rate can be between 150-200 meteors an hour.”

However, in 2017 the Perseids will be a little more difficult to see due to the presence of the moon, which will be three-quarters full and will rise shortly before the shower hits its peak around midnight local time.

That means that rates will be about half what they would be normally, because of the bright moonlight, Cooke says. “Instead of 80 to 100, [there will be] 40 to 50 per hour. And that’s just because the moon’s going to wash out the fainter ones. But the good news is that the Perseids are rich in fireballs; otherwise the moon would really mess with them,” Cooke added.

Earth passes through the path of Comet Swift-Tuttle from 17 July to 24 August with the shower’s peak — when Earth passes through the densest, dustiest area — occurring on 12 August.

Comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest object known to repeatedly pass by Earth; its nucleus is about 26km wide. It last passed nearby Earth during its orbit around the sun in 1992, and the next time will be in 2126. But in the meantime, Earth passes through the dust and debris it leaves behind every year, creating the annual Perseid meteor shower.

This means you’ll see the most meteors in the shortest amount of time near the 12 August peak.

So what you’re actually seeing is the pieces of comet debris heat up as they enter the atmosphere and burn up in a bright burst of light, streaking a vivid path across the sky as they travel at 59km per second.

And… some space terminology here: “meteoroids” is what the debris is called when still in space. Once they enter the Earth’s atmosphere they are “meteors” and if they make it all the way down to Earth without burning up, tey become “meteorites”.

But most of the meteors in the Perseids are much too small for that: they’re about the size of a grain of sand.