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In Pictures

Gallery|In Pictures

Annual Perseid meteor shower lights up skies around the world

The Perseid meteor shower reached its peak this weekend, sending bright trails of light streaking across the night sky.

The Perseids
A meteor streaks across the sky over the National Observatory Miyun Station during the Perseid meteor shower in Beijing, China. [Wang Yutong/VCG via Getty Images]
Published On 14 Aug 202314 Aug 2023
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Dark skies due to a nearly invisible moon made this year’s Perseid meteor shower an especially star-studded event, astronomers said.

At its peak, up to 100 shooting stars per hour streaked across the sky around the world – more than one a minute.

Viewing was easier this year because the moon’s glow has not interfered with meteor-watching as it was approaching its darkest or “new” phase.

The Perseids – one of the biggest meteor showers we can see – occur every year in the late summer.

Meteor showers happen when the Earth moves through fields of debris floating around in space.

The Perseids come from comet Swift-Tuttle, a big ball of ice and rock that sheds pieces of dusty debris as it orbits around the sun.

When the Earth passes by, those bits get caught in our atmosphere and burn up, creating streaking lights.

The Perseids get their name from the constellation Perseus because the meteors’ paths appear to start out from this point in the sky.

The Perseids
An observer watches the Perseid meteor shower at Mount Hamilton in California, US. [Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images]
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The Perseids
Shooting stars are seen during the Perseids meteor shower above the castle of Holloko, Hungary. [Peter Komka/EPA]
The Perseids
A meteor streaks across the sky during the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower near the city of Garmsar in Semnan province, Iran. [Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
The Perseids
People visited the Phrygian Valley in Afyonkarahisar, 250km (155 miles) southwest of Ankara, to watch the Perseid meteor shower. [Emrah Gurel/AP Photo]
The Perseids
A view of meteors streaking in the night sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower at Sophienalpe near Vienna, Austria. [Julia Geiter/Reuters]
The Perseids
Meteor crossing the night sky over the stone dolls in Kuklica, Republic of North Macedonia. [Georgi Licovski/EPA]
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The Perseids
People watch as meteor streaks in the night sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower in the Siberian town of Yeniseysk in the Krasnoyarsk region, Russia. [Alexey Malgavko/Reuters]
The Perseids
Meteor showers happen when the Earth moves through fields of debris floating around in space. [Emrah Gurel/AP Photo]


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