The Perseid Meteor Shower: Origin, Formation, and Spectacular Displays

The Perseid meteor shower originates from a cloud of debris left behind in the inner solar system, from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, known as Comet Swift-Tuttle.

A 16-mile, or 26-kilometer, collection of dust, ice, rock, and dark organic matter orbits the Sun at a speed of 93,600 miles per hour.

Although moving at a speed 60 times greater than the top speed of a fighter jet on Earth, Comet Swift-Tuttle takes 133 years to fully orbit the Sun.

When a comet approaches the Sun, radiation from the Sun heats it up and turns the solid ice into gas, or sublimation. When this gas escapes the comet, it sends away shards of ice, dust and rock.

These remnants are then left around the Sun as a sandy debris cloud, creating comet material around the Earth.

When the Earth is orbiting the Sun, every summer between July and August, the Earth passes through these debris flows. It was then that shards of ice and dust entered Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to 130,000 miles per hour.

The debris causes the air to compress and heat up. As a result, at an altitude of between 70-100 km above Earth, larger pieces of rock and ice explode as bright fireballs.

Smaller debris fragments can go further into Earth’s atmosphere when they evaporate, and leave longer streaks of light behind them.

2023-08-11 08:03:43
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