Each time Halley’s Comet returns to our inner solar system, it scatters leftover comet particles and broken asteroid bits. Each year, Earth crosses through these trails of debris, resulting in two annual meteor showers.
Let’s dive into the cosmos in celebration of the Perseid meteor shower, which will peak Friday and Saturday.
Edwin C. Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory, said the best spots to get a clear view are areas as far away as possible from major cities and heavy light pollution, which means Southern California observers hoping to catch a glimpse of Friday’s shower may need to make travel plans away from the city.
“If you get into the mountains or out to the east — Palm Springs, Joshua [Tree National Park], Yucca Valley — once you’re well away from a really high concentration of city light, then you’ve got a chance,” Krupp said. “If you see the stars and they dazzle you, you know you’re far enough.
Observers should keep an eye for “a flash of light, relatively bright compared to anything else that you’re seeing up there for that moment,” Krupp said. It will last for just a brief moment, he said, but it will leave behind what looks like a “trail of light,” which is actually the meteor burning through the atmosphere’s air.
“When you see one, you might just first see a bright spot of light that is just momentarily visible before it changes into almost like a quick line of light that quickly fades,” Krupp said. “So it’s almost like a match, in terms of it’s brevity, that brightens up and shoots a short way across the sky and then disappears.”
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