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Perseid Meteor Shower

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Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
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Every year in mid-August the Perseid meteor shower has its peak. Meteors, colloquially known as "shooting stars", are caused by pieces of cosmic debris entering Earth's atmosphere at high velocity.
S. Guisard/ESO

From August 11 to 14, 2015, the Northern Hemisphere sky will be lit up by the Perseid meteor shower. This year will be an especially good year, since the Moon will not rise until just before sunrise. The best viewing times will be on August 11 and 12, when NASA predicts a possible peak of 100 meteors an hour. Just find a dark place and look northeast.

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