Every August, our Earth is on a collision course with the trail of an ancient comet. The Swift-Tuttle comet only orbits the sun every 133 years, and leaves behind an endless trail of debris. As these bits of debris collide with the Earth's atmosphere (at around 132,000 miles per hour), they burn up and create bright streaks in the night sky, which we know as the Perseids. The Perseids are so named because they originate from a point in the sky near to the constellation Perseus.
This year, however, an outburst occurred, producing up to 200 meteors visible per hour in perfect conditions. In this context, an outburst describes a meteor shower that is heavier than usual. This was caused by Jupiter's strong gravitational pull, forcing the Swift-Tuttle trail into the middle of the Earth's path.
While I am certainly not a science-minded person, I have a great fascination with outer space. The colorful planets and nebulas are so mind-blowing, and I love to imagine what all could be out there that we might never even discover. I was determined to see the Perseids this year, from out in the country with almost zero light pollution to obscure my view. Although I had read the peak time to watch was between 5 am and sunrise on the morning of August 12, I was so excited that I went out several hours early.
At 12:33am, the half moon was still visible in the Western sky, and next to it Mars, Saturn, and Antares in a triangle. I was glad to see the moon, but it was so bright I had trouble focusing on the darkest parts of the sky. By 1:06, I had seen 10 meteors, and a few minutes later I was up to 15. Unfortunately, at this point I started getting tired from lying down on the porch. I got my tally up to 25 meteors, and then went inside to sleep around 2:30. A few hours later, at 5:24 am, I went back outside with my mom. We watched the sky until the sun came up, and saw a total of 39 meteors. In just an hour's time, we saw almost 40 meteors streak across the stars!
My favorite part of this amazing, naturally-occurring event is that the Swift-Tuttle comet is over a thousand years old. Generations and generations of humans have watched the Perseids, probably with just as much awe as modern-day humans. The Perseids didn't receive their name until the 1800s, so what were they called before that? Surely different peoples all over the globe who saw these bright streaks had a magnificent name for them, and these names are perhaps lost to history. One thing we can know for sure is that for a thousand years humans have been pointing up to the night sky in August and whispering into the darkness their wonder at this amazing world.
