Meteors

The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks this week, between Aug. 10 – 13, however, a waning gibbous moon (the phase after a full moon) may make it harder to see the meteors. Aug. 10 is the night of the “supermoon,” the biggest, brightest moon of 2014. Astronomers suggest the best time for viewing the Perseid meteor shower this year will be just before dawn Aug. 11 – 13.

2

The number of grams the average meteor weighs. Most visible meteors range in size from a grain of sand to a small pebble. The meteor’s brilliant light is not caused by mass but by kinetic energy as the particle collides with the atmosphere.

50

The number of meteors you should see in an hour during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower.

4479

The year Comet Swift-Tuttle, parent body of the Perseid meteor shower, is expected to have a close encounter with Earth. In his 1996 book Impact! The Threat of Comets and Asteroids, astronomer Gerrit Verschuur called Comet Swift-Tuttle “the single most dangerous object known to humanity.”

13,000

The number of meteors seen per hour during the last great meteor storm from the Andromedid stream on Nov. 27, 1885.

160,000

Top miles per hour of a meteor entering the atmosphere. The slowest-moving meteor is traveling about 25,000 mph.

Source: American Meteor Society