Natural History Wanderings

Perseids Meteor Shower  Peaks around Aug. 12. The NY Times  reports

The Perseids light up the night sky when Earth runs into pieces of cosmic debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. The dirty snowball is 17 miles wide and takes about 133 years to orbit the sun. Its last go-around was in 1992.

Usually between 160 and 200 meteors dazzle in Earth’s atmosphere every hour during the display’s peak. They zoom through the atmosphere at around 133,000 miles per hour and burst about 60 miles overhead.

Read more at Meteor Showers in 2017 That Will Light Up Night Skies – The New York Times