Tomorrow, Saturday, the phenomenon of the peak of the “Pershawiyat” meteor shower begins, as specialists and astronomers around the world are preparing to monitor and follow the main sky event this summer, which will light up the sky with 60 meteors per hour, starting from tomorrow evening “Saturday” until dawn the day after tomorrow “Sunday.” , which can be seen with the naked eye if the monitoring is done from a suitable and dark place.
In order to follow this interesting phenomenon, many amateur astronomers in Egypt began preparing to monitor the “Barshawiyat” meteor shower by organizing many trips received by the scientists of the Katameya Astronomical Observatory, in addition to trips to St. Catherine, Siwa Oasis, Matrouh and others.
Dr. Ashraf Tadros, Professor of Astronomy at the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, explained to the Middle East News Agency that the annual meteor showers arise when the Earth passes during its rotation around the sun through dense gatherings of dust and pebbles scattered along the orbits of comets and asteroids, as it collides with the top of the Earth’s atmosphere and burns at a height. It ranges between 70 and 100 kilometers and appears to us as a strip of light, and this leads to the occurrence of meteor showers that are repeated on an annual basis. He stressed that the appearance of these meteors in the sky does not cause any harm to humans or their daily activities on the ground, as their observations are enjoyable and they are loved by astronomers and those interested in astronomy and space sciences to follow and photograph them.
As for the Perseids, the astronomy professor indicated that this period is very suitable for seeing the Perseids due to the lack of moonlighting at the time of the peak of meteor showers, explaining that the best conditions for viewing meteor showers in general are from a completely dark place away from the city lights after midnight. Provided that the sky is clear and free of dust and clouds, such as agricultural fields, coasts, deserts, prairies, and mountains.
He added that in the case of monitoring from bright places inside cities or monitoring at a time far from the peak of the shower, the observer may not see more than a few meteors only in the best case.
He said that the Perseids meteors are caused by the entry of the remnants of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862, and the entry of these remnants that cause meteors continues from July 17 to August 24 every year, and reaches its peak this year on the night of the 12th and the dawn of August 13th.
He added that these meteors fall as if they were coming from the Perseus / Perseus group, which is the reason for its name, but they can appear anywhere else in the sky.
For his part, Eng. Majed Abu Zahra, Head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, said in a statement issued today that the “Pershawyat” meteors are one of the best meteor showers annually, as they present a wonderful show in the night sky, and this year 2023 will be very good because the meteors will reach their climax and the moon is in the crescent phase of the end. The month will not be a big problem this year, so the dark sky will be an ideal opportunity to see even the weakest meteors, even if the Perseids are not originally faint meteors.
He pointed out that the Perseids are famous for shining meteors at a rate of about two per minute, under ideal conditions, at the peak of activity before dawn on Sunday morning.
He explained that the Perseids are expected to fall from two meteor tracks, which will enhance the activity, which could make it the main sky event this summer, according to the International Meteor Organization.
He described the Perseids meteors as not only fast, but many of them are bright and appear as fireballs brighter than Venus, and about 45 percent of the fireballs leave behind tails that last for a few seconds after the disappearance of the meteor flash, those that last for 10 seconds or more are called Continuous tails, and this year it will be easy to detect those tails, especially away from the light pollution of cities.
