When to watch Perseid meteor shower light up the sky tonight in Mississippi
Showy fireballs and falling stars will be visible at night over Mississippi until late August. You still have time to stargaze and make a wish.
The Perseid is the most famous of the trio. According to the American Meteor Society, it runs from about July 17 to Aug. 23.
The alpha Capricornids are still in progress and will be active through about Aug. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. The Delta Aquariid Meteor Shower will also be visible from July 18 through around Aug. 12.
Here are the best nights and times to see the most shooting stars near you. Plan now for a romantic date night or make memories your family will treasure. Need a good place to watch? Here's what we know about the spots in Mississippi where the night sky is darkest.
What are the best nights to see shooting stars in August?
The Perseids will peak around Aug. 12-13, according to the The American Meteor Society.
Peak periods for the Delta Aquarids and alpha Capricornids were around July 29-30, but they're still putting on a show. It's just not the maximum number of meteors you might see.
What is each meteor shower known for?
The Perseids are one of the most popular annual astronomical events. They're active for several weeks and can treat viewers to about 50-75 meteors per hour, according to AMS. The moon will likely be bright during the peak evenings in 2025, so only the brightest meteors will be seen. It could reduce visibility by as much as 75%.
According to EarthSky, the maximum hourly rate can be about 15-20 visible meteors in a dark sky for the Delta Aquariid. These can be faint and hard to see.
The alpha Capricornids have fewer meteors, but they're showier. This shower is known for fireballs, but you might only see about five per hour, according to the Meteor Society.
When is the August full moon?
The worst nights for viewing meteor showers will be in the days surrounding the full moon.
The full moon in August, called the "Sturgeon Moon," will be on Aug. 9, 2025. Peak illumination will be 2:55 a.m. CT, according to Farmer's Almanac.
Moonrise in Jackson will be at 7:48 p.m. CT, on Aug. 8, according to timeanddate.com. That'll be shortly after sunset around 7:51 p.m.
When is the best time of night to see Perseid, more meteor showers in August?
All three meteor showers can be visible from evening through dawn, meaning you don't have to stay up super late for this stargazing. You just might not get the best views earlier in the evening.
AMS says the best time to see any meteor shower is between midnight and dawn. According to NASA, the Perseids can be seen as early as 10 p.m.
Where are the best dark sky places in Mississippi? Find a great spot to see the night sky
Go Astronomy lists some of the best places for seeing the night sky without light pollution in Mississippi.
Places that have a Bortle dark-sky scale score are provided. The nine-tier system ranks a three as a rural night sky and a one as an excellent dark sky.
Bienville National Forest: Bortle score - 3.
Clark Creek Natural Area: Bortle score - 3.
De Soto National Forest.
Delta National Forest.
French Camp.
Holly Springs National Forest.
Holmes County State Park: Bortle score - 3.
Homochitto National Forest: Bortle score - 3.
Leroy Percy State Park: Bortle score - 3.
Tishomingo State Park: Bortle score - 3.
Tombigbee National Forest.
The Natchez Trace Parkway has designated stargazing spots from sunrise until 10 p.m.:
Big Tree Overlook, milepost 439.4.
Little Mountain Exhibit Shelter, milepost 193.1.
Reservoir Overlook, milepost 105.6.
It's still summer, so plan for heat and mosquitoes to stargaze safely if you're spending a lot of time outdoors. Nights are cooler but still humid, which can make it hard for sweat to evaporate. Sweating more leads to dehydration faster, so be sure to bring plenty of water and maybe some bug repellent.
Are a meteor and a comet the same thing?
No. They're different, but they can be related.
A comet is an icy ball of rock, frozen gas and dust that orbits the sun. According to NASA, they can be "the size of a small town." As they get near to the sun, comets develop a head that's bigger than some planets made of dust and gas. The resulting tail can be millions of miles long.
Meteors, sometimes called shooting stars, are little pieces of debris that we see burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, according to NASA.
"Every Perseid meteor is a tiny piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which swings by the Sun every 135 years," NASA wrote.
Before it enters the atmosphere and is still in space, the rock is called a meteoroid.
A meteorite is the part of the meteor that survives the trip and hits the ground.
Space Connect reporter Eric Lagatta contributed to this report.
Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at bbolden@gannett.co
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: August full moon 2025: When is the next full moon, Perseid meteor shower
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Strand Therapeutics Raises $153 Million Series B Financing to Further Advance Programmable mRNA Therapeutic Pipeline
Funding will advance Strand's pipeline and mission to bring targeted, next-generation mRNA therapies to patients First-in-human solid tumor Phase 1 data from lead program, STX-001, was recently presented at 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting BOSTON, August 07, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Strand Therapeutics, a leader in next-generation mRNA-based therapeutics, today announced $153M Series B funding led by Kinnevik, with new investors Regeneron Ventures, ICONIQ, Amgen Ventures, Alderline Group (the family office of Alex Gorsky), JIC-VGI, LG Technology Ventures, and Gradiant Corporation, with continued participation from existing investors including FPV Ventures, Playground Global, Eli Lilly and Company, ANRI, and Potentum. To date, Strand has raised over $250M. As part of the financing, Ala Alenazi, Ph.D., of Kinnevik, will join the company's Board of Directors. The funding will advance Strand's pipeline, led by STX-001, a programmable mRNA therapy that expresses the cytokine interleukin-12 (IL-12) directly from the tumor microenvironment. The company recently announced promising initial Phase 1 clinical data for patients with advanced solid tumors at the 2025 ASCO annual meeting, noting multiple RECIST responses (including cases of complete response and complete metabolic response), multiple cases of prolonged disease stabilization, and a favorable safety profile in treatment-resistant patients. Earlier this year, Strand also presented preclinical data for STX-003, a world-first systemically administrable mRNA therapy with tumor targeting that is programmed to avoid off-target payload delivery (including liver avoidance), showing the first glimpse into the massive potential of their programmable mRNA genetic circuits. Data presented at the 2025 AACR and ASGCT annual meetings demonstrated the candidate's potential to target expression of IL-12 to tumors following systemic administration of the LNP-mRNA drug, creating an effective anti-tumor therapy that was well tolerated. IL-12 is a potent pro-inflammatory cytokine primarily produced by antigen-presenting cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells. IL-12 holds significant promise in cancer immunotherapy due to its robust immunostimulatory effects. STX-001 encodes IL-12 which Strand has designed so that it can reprogram the tumor microenvironment and stimulate a systemic anti-tumor immune response. Unlike traditional mRNA therapies, Strand's approach uses self-replicating mRNA, ensuring localized and durable therapeutic activity. "We believe programmable RNA is the next frontier in therapeutics, and Strand has built the leading platform to unlock it," said Christian Scherrer, Senior Investment Director and Head of Health and Bio at Kinnevik. "Their early clinical data is outstanding, and the systemic delivery capability has the potential to reshape how we treat disease, starting with cancer, with more disease targets on the horizon. We look forward to partnering with founders Jake and Tasuku and the entire team as they move into this next phase of growth." "With support from our investors, we're advancing our vision of developing safe, effective, and accessible therapies through programmable genetic medicines, especially for those patients with few treatment options," said Jake Becraft, PhD, CEO and Co-founder of Strand Therapeutics. "Our initial STX-001 Phase 1 data provides early and strong clinical validation of our platform's capabilities. We have observed systemic immune activation and anti-tumor responses, including responses in non-injected lesions, across multiple tumor types. Now is an exciting period of expansion for our existing clinical work, as well as the exciting breakthrough assets in our pipeline, all with the potential to transform the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases." Strand's proprietary platform for programmable and potent mRNA therapeutics is the first of its kind. Its therapies combine best-in-class engineered next-generation mRNA modalities, such as self-replicating mRNA and circular RNA, with genetically programmed logic circuits, allowing for precise, controlled therapeutic payload delivery directly into the cells/tissues themselves. The novel approach brings the potential to effectively treat cancer and other deadly chronic diseases through its targeted therapies that are scalable, accessible, and expand the treatment landscape for patients desperately in need. About STX-001 STX-001 is an investigational multi-mechanistic, synthetic self-replicating mRNA technology that expresses an IL-12 cytokine for an extended period of time, directly administered to tumors in order to promote immune modulation and antitumor activity. The company received IND clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2023 to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for STX-001, announced its first patient dosed just before the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting, and presented the first data of the trial at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting. Additional details can be found at using identifier: NCT06249048. About Strand Therapeutics Strand Therapeutics is leading the next generation of programmable mRNA therapies: where synthetic biology meets programmable biology to unlock the full potential of gene regulation and delivery inside the body. Unlike traditional mRNA technologies, Strand's platform programs RNA to think, enabling logic-controlled expression, precision delivery, and unprecedented control over therapeutic outcomes. Born out of MIT and led by world-class synthetic biologists, Strand is building the infrastructure to create medicines that respond to disease signals in real-time. With its computationally-driven design engine, self-amplifying/circular RNA modalities, and mRNA-only genetic circuits, the company is pioneering a new therapeutic modality poised to disrupt immuno-oncology, cell therapy, autoimmune diseases, and beyond. Strand's lead pipeline program, STX-001, is already in the clinic showing unprecedented response rates in late stage "salvage" cancer patients, with multiple patients showing RECIST responses. Strand's modular platform opens a broad horizon of partnership and licensing opportunities. Strand isn't just another mRNA company: it's the operating system for the programmable medicines of tomorrow. Follow us on LinkedIn and on X at @strandtx. View source version on Contacts Media contacts:Karen Sharmaksharma@ Shannia Coleyscoley@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Natera Launches Fetal Focus™: A Noninvasive Prenatal Test for Inherited Conditions
Launch supported by strong assay performance in first milestone readout of the landmark EXPAND clinical trial AUSTIN, Texas, August 07, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRA), a global leader in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing and precision medicine, today announced the launch of Fetal Focus, a noninvasive prenatal test (NIPT) for inherited conditions. When a pregnant patient is identified as a carrier of a recessive single-gene condition, medical guidelines recommend partner testing in order to determine the risk for the baby to be affected by the condition1; however, in some cases the biological father is unavailable for testing. The Fetal Focus test was designed to address this unmet need. Now if a pregnant patient tests positive with Natera's Horizon™ carrier screen for one of the five most commonly tested genes, and if the father is unavailable for testing, Fetal Focus can screen the fetus directly for that gene by simply analyzing a sample of the mother's blood. Fetal Focus is validated for the analysis of five genes: CFTR (cystic fibrosis), SMN1 (spinal muscular atrophy), HBA1 and HBA2 (alpha-thalassemia), and HBB (beta-hemoglobinopathies, including sickle cell disease). The launch is supported by data from EXPAND, a large, prospective, blinded clinical trial. The study, which was initiated in 2023, has enrolled approximately 1,300 participants to date, reflecting a diverse, multi-ethnic population from leading academic medical centers and maternal fetal medicine clinics. EXPAND is designed to be the defining clinical trial in the category, with all outcomes, including both positive and negative results, confirmed by genetic truth using prenatal or postnatal diagnostic testing. In its first milestone readout (n=101) from EXPAND, the Fetal Focus test demonstrated 91% sensitivity and successfully identified 5/5 fetuses affected by homozygous variants.2,3 Homozygous cases, where the fetus inherits the same condition-causing variant from both parents, are especially challenging to detect. Fetal Focus uses Natera's proprietary LinkedSNP™ technology to improve detection of these cases across diverse populations. "Having access to a noninvasive option like Fetal Focus can provide critical information to support decision-making during pregnancy, especially in situations where partner testing isn't possible," said John Williams, M.D., chief principal investigator for EXPAND and director of reproductive genetics at Cedars-Sinai. "Fetal Focus adds another important offering within our comprehensive reproductive health portfolio – furthering our commitment to launching products that address clinical gaps in care and are supported by rigorous clinical validation," said Sheetal Parmar, M.S., CGC, senior vice president of medical affairs for women's health at Natera. "The EXPAND study has been underway for several years, and we're pleased to release this first milestone readout." References ACOG Committee Opinion #690, Mar 2017. Internal data on file. In EXPAND, the study participants and investigators are blinded to the Fetal Focus™ test results. EXpanding Prenatal Cell Free DNA Screening Across MoNogenic Disorders (EXPAND). Accessed July 2025. About Natera Natera™ is a global leader in cell-free DNA and genetic testing, dedicated to oncology, women's health, and organ health. We aim to make personalized genetic testing and diagnostics part of the standard-of-care to protect health and inform earlier, more targeted interventions that help lead to longer, healthier lives. Natera's tests are supported by more than 300 peer-reviewed publications that demonstrate excellent performance. Natera operates ISO 13485-certified and CAP-accredited laboratories certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) in Austin, Texas, and San Carlos, California. For more information, visit Forward-Looking Statements All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements and are not a representation that Natera's plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking statements represent Natera's expectations as of the date of this press release, and Natera disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including with respect to whether the results of clinical or other studies will support the use of our product offerings, the impact of results of such studies, our expectations of the reliability, accuracy and performance of our tests, or of the benefits of our tests and product offerings to patients, providers and payers. Additional risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in "Risk Factors" in Natera's recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and in other filings Natera makes with the SEC from time to time. These documents are available at and View source version on Contacts Investor Relations: Mike Brophy, CFO, Natera, Inc., investor@ Media: Lesley Bogdanow, VP of Corporate Communications, Natera, Inc., pr@ Sign in to access your portfolio
Bloomberg
26 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
The Real Nuclear Moonshot Is Here on Earth
In America in 2025 it's tough to know which we will see first, the Epstein files or a nuclear power plant on the Moon. The Trump administration certainly seems more committed to the latter. Transportation Secretary and acting head of NASA Sean Duffy has reportedly issued a directive aiming for a lunar-ready reactor by 2030. This is certainly one way of pushing more federal funding toward advanced reactor research. It also magnifies, through a fantastical lens, the broader hype around new nuclear power — and the daunting challenge of getting it deployed to meet our more immediate needs for carbon-free power back here at home.
