Stargazers and astronomers are getting ready for one of the biggest meteor event of all times as the annual Perseid meteor shower will coincide with the Delta Aquarid meteor shower causing a magnificent cosmic traffic jam.
With its origin in the distant constellation Perseus, the Perseid meteor shower has been observed for over 2000 years visible from Mid-July every year.
However, it is only during August that Perseids peak when the rate of meteors reaches more than 60 per hour.
This year, the cosmic event will be magnified as Perseids' lesser known cousin; Delta Aquarid is expected to peak tonight to produce a combined 15 and 30 shooting stars per hour under clear, dark skies.
"While the moon is set to be an unpleasant guest for the Perseid peak, skywatchers are not out of luck as the Delta Aquarids could be one of the best meteor showers of the year,"National Geographic quoted Raminder Singh Samra, astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada stating.
Both the meteor showers are caused by slamming of Earth's atmosphere into clouds of sand grain-size particles shed by orbiting comets. These particles then enter the atmosphere at high speeds (above 93,200 miles per hour) to burn up in a fleeting streak of light.
Check out the amazing visuals of Delta Aquarid and Perseid meteor showers throughout the years.
The lights of an approaching plane are pictured as a meteor (R) streaks past stars in the night sky, on the outskirts of Cancun August 13, 2010. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. Picture taken using a long exposure.Reuters.A man observes from a telescope stars that outnumber Perseid meteors lighting up the night sky of the al-Azraq desert, 70 km (45 miles) east of Amman, in the early hours of August 13, 2002, at the height of a meteor storm that was clearly visible to the naked eye in several parts of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Meteors are the debris left in the wake of a passing comet infiltrating the Earth's atmosphere.The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when Earth passes through a stream of space grit left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle.Reuters.A Perseid meteor (top) and the trail of an jet airplane converge over the cliff walls of Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas, Nevada August 11, 2009. The annual show of Perseid meteor shower is caused from bits of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle. Reuters.Stargazers and astronomers are getting ready for one of the biggest meteor event of all times as the annual Perseid meteor shower will coincide with the Delta Aquarid meteor shower causing a magnificent cosmic traffic jam.Reuters.A meteor streaks past stars in the night sky over Stonehenge in Salisbury Plain, southern England August 12, 2010. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by comet Swift-Tuttle.Reuters.The Perseid shower takes place as the Earth moves through the stream of debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. In 2010 the peak was predicted to take place between 12–13 August 2010. Despite the Perseids being best visible in the northern hemisphere, due to the path of Comet Swift-Tuttle's orbit, the shower was also spotted from the exceptionally dark skies over ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. In order not to miss any meteors in the display, ESO Photo Ambassador Stéphane Guisard set up 3 cameras to take continuous time-lapse pictures on the platform of the Very Large Telescope during the nights of 12–13 and 13–14 August 2010. This handpicked photograph, from the night of 13–14 August, was one of Guisard’s 8000 individual exposures and shows one of the brightest meteors captured. The scene is lit by the reddened light of the setting Moon outside the left of the frame.Reuters.
