On the night of August 12-13, you can count 100 twinkling falling stars within an hour. But in order to marvel at the beautiful starry sky, it is better to be in a place free from high light pollution. We’ll show you the best stargazing spots in Germany.
The Perseids appear to come from the constellation of Perseus, but it’s the cloud of debris from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle that floods Earth every year in its orbit around the Sun. According to Astronomical Friends, the comet was independently discovered by Louis Swift and Horace Tuttle on July 19, 1862, and it takes about 133 years to complete one orbit around the Sun. Next time it should be visible from Earth in the year 2126.
According to the Hamburg Planetarium, what burns up in Earth’s atmosphere are comet crumbs that it loses in its orbit. Each August, Earth crosses this cosmic debris path, and comet particles fall into the atmosphere like raindrops on a car window.
The original version of this post “Perseid Stream Peak: Here You Can See Most of the Towering Stars” comes from glomex.
