Stunning photos of huge 'fireballs' soaring across the sky last night
PHOTOGRAPHERS managed to capture huge meteor fireballs in all their glory last night as the Perseid meteor shower reached peak activity and shined at its brightest.
If you want to wish upon a shooting star then you haven't missed out as the meteors should be visible for most of August but if you wish you watched them last night then have a look at these photos.This photo was captured next to Radimlja, a stećak necropolis located near Stolac, Bosnia and HerzegovinaThey are called Perseid meteors because they appear to shoot from the Perseus star constellation.
The Perseids are one of the brightest meteor showers of the year so can be seen without a telescope and you don't need to be an avid astronomer.The meteor shower is usually active between July 17 and August 24 but is thought to be brightest around August 12.
It can take around half an hour for your eyes to adjust to the dark so budding stargazers will need to be patient when they get to their dark viewing location.Also, try not to look at phone screens or any other artificial light sources that you may have with you as this will affect your ability to see the faint meteors.The shower is caused by the comet Swift-Tuttle striking the Earth’s atmosphere each year, resulting in little bits of debris flying off which burn up become the meteors.
If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning upIf a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteoriteLike asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun.
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