The Perseid Meteor Shower
Posted by Ruth Miller on Mon 25th June 2007 at 06:00 AM, Filed in Travel News
If you’re in to breathtaking cosmic experiences then should try and keep your diary free for 4am August 13 2007.
We’ve all seen shooting stars and made a wish. Still waiting for my windfall! But imagine looking up into the heavens and seeing maybe hundreds of shooting stars fizzing through the atmosphere. Scientists are predicting with amazing accuracy that on the 13th a shooting star should be visible every few seconds.
This amazing cosmic event is a result of an obscure comet’s last pass through the solar system leaving a trail of miniscule ice crystals and debris to rain down onto the earth’s surface. The comet in question (named bizarrely Swift-Tuttle) made it’s pass way back in 1992 and only now are the remnants of it’s journey due to pass into the path of planet earth.
To view this natural light show you really need to get out of the big cities and into pitch black rural areas. Outer Hebrides would be perfect!
Alternatively, if you’re on holiday in the Mediterranean the chances of clear skies could make this event a breath taking experience for the family to witness.
Apologies to our Southern Hemsisphere cousins but this is likely to be a Northern Hemisphere event only.
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