The Perseid meteor shower, one of the most famous annual “shooting stars” screens, reached this peak activity this week, putting on a spectacular show for skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere.
While the Perseids are typically considered one of the best meteor showers, with about 50 to 75 meteors per hour, this year some less meteors were visible than normal. That’s because the moon of the first quarter drowned some of the brave meteors with its bright light.
Despite some interference by moonlight, photographers around the world managed to take many beautiful photos of Perseid meteors strutting through the night sky.
Related: Top 10 facts of meteor shower over Perseid
Perseids 2020
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The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year from mid-July to late August, when Earth passes through the stream of punctures left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun about once every 135 years.
While the meteor shower is active for about five weeks, it reaches its peak activity each year around August 12, according to the American Meteor Society. This year, the Perseids peaked for Wednesday morning (August 12), but visibility was better Tuesday night (August 11) before the moon rose and began to shine the darker meteors.
Pictured above, taken by astrophotographer Barbara Matthews in Humboldt County, California on Tuesday (August 11), a brilliant pink-and-green meteor stretches across the starry night sky at the glittering Milky Way. Visible to the left of the Milky Way is the bright planet Jupiter, with Saturn shining slightly to the left.
Matthews captured this image at 10:30 a.m. local time, or about 90 minutes before the moonrise, when the sky was clear of moonlight.
In the Nevada desert, near Las Vegas, astrophotographer Tyler Leavitt captured his own beautiful views of Perseid meteors and the Milky Way.
In the image above, a pink-and-green meteor extends from the view of the left side of the frame, while Jupiter and Saturn glow side-by-side in the center. A second image of Leavitt, below, shows a meteor that appears to be pointing toward Jupiter.
While meteors often appear as white “shooting stars” jumping across the night sky, they can also glow with brilliant colors such as pink, green, orange and purple.
The color of a meteor track depends on its chemical composition; when a meteor burns into the atmosphere, elements such as calcium, sodium and iron begin to ionize, producing a colorful glow. Perseids are known to produce bright pink-and-green paths, while the Geminid meteor shower in December tends to produce meteors with turquoise paths.
Related: How to watch the best meteor showers of 2020
If you miss the highlight of Perseid’s Meteor shower, it’s not too late to catch it! The shower remains active until August 26, according to the American Meteor Society.
To search for the meteors, you want to find a dark sky away from city lighting. Perseus meteors will appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus (hence the name). Moonlight could still interrupt some of the brave meteors, but the moon is currently declining, so the night sky is gradually getting darker until the new moon next Tuesday (August 18).
Editor’s note: If you’m snapping a great photo or video of 2020 Perseid meteor shower and would like to share it with Space.com for a possible story or gallery, send pictures and comments to [email protected].
Email Hanneke Weitering at [email protected] or follow her @hannekescience. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom innd on Facebook.
