1 min. reading time
IIf you saw a few meteors streaking across the sky last night, it was the Perseid meteor shower.
The meteor shower, which occurs once a year, usually begins in mid-July but is barely noticeable. The peak – when stargazers can see the most meteors – is usually in mid-August and can be seen all over the world.
The best time to watch the Perseid meteor shower in the U.S. was the night of August 11. But don’t worry if you missed it: You can still see a fair number of meteors in the early hours of August 13. The meteor shower is considered the most beautiful of the year—when watching it, you can see about 20 to 30 meteors per hour if you look into a dark sky with no city lights.
The meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through the debris of a comet called Swift-Tuttle. When pieces of this debris enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up due to friction, resulting in the streaks in the sky that most people know as “shooting stars” or “shooting stars.”
The photographers took beautiful pictures of this year’s event.
Here are some of the best photos:
