12-08-2025
Tonight, tomorrow best times to see Perseid meteor shower
The Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak tonight and tomorrow, making it the best time for stargazers to view the celestial fireworks.
The event is associated with the dusty debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years.
The meteoroids from the comet, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the Earth's atmosphere at 36 miles per second, to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.
Peak temperatures can reach anywhere from 1,648C to 5,537C as they hit the atmosphere.
The meteors are called Perseids because they seem to dart out of the constellation Perseus.
Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Resident Astronomer at Blackrock Observatory in Cork Danielle Wilcox said the best time to view the spectacle after sunset and before the moon rise as it will be the darkest time.
Ms Wilcox said there are around 12 meteor showers every year but Perseid has the most and brightest meteors.
"These are very predictable, they happen every year at the same time," she said.
"What is happening is we have comets that come from the outer solar system and they come in from the sun and they come near the sun the start to break up.
"So you have all this debris that comes from the comet, so you will have ice, rock and different things that are coming from the comet.
"And it leaves this cloud and it is in the same spot in space, so as we are going around the sun, Earth slams into this cloud and passes through all this debris in August every year," Ms Wilcox said.
She said if anyone misses meteor shower tonight or tomorrow, not to worry as it continues for the next week.
