Once one of the most famous star phenomena arrives. It’s the most anticipated meteor shower of the year. They are the Perseids, or tears of San Lorenzo. And to the delight of the observers, they reach our sky again. The phenomenon will peak in the early morning of August 11-12. It will reach an intensity between 50 and 100 meteors per hour. A show that this year will also be accompanied by clear skies and a waning moon. Thanks to this, it can be enjoyed in all its glory (as long as a place with little light pollution is chosen).
The tail of the comet
The Perseid meteor shower takes place every year in mid-August. It happens when the planet passes through a field of dust and particles left behind by Swift-Tuttle, a comet 15 miles in diameter. It happened around 1992 and won’t return until 2126. The maximum of the meteor shower is approaching August 10, the day of the feast of the Spanish martyr San Lorenzo. For this reason, the Perseids are also known as the tears of Saint Lawrence.
Are they stars?
Despite the name, shooting stars are not stars that move across the sky. They are particles, usually the size of a grain of sand, that the earth runs into and that enter the atmosphere at high speeds, which can be anywhere from 10 to 50 kilometers per second. These speeds are so high that friction heats them so much that they disintegrate and emit light. Hence, the most anticipated meteor shower of the year … is not made of stars. They consist of glowing dust particles.
One of the advantages of this phenomenon is that it is visible to the naked eye. You just have to find a place with little light and high visibility of the sky. It can be a wide clearing in a wooded area or a hill away from the lighting of the cities. And to prepare for the show, a real festival of lights in the sky.
