JACKSON, Wyo. — Often considered to be one of the best meteor showers of the year due to its high rates and pleasant late-summer temperatures, the Perseid meteor shower put on a magnificent display in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 12.
Like a natural firework show, stargazers caught views of bright meteors and fireballs flying across the sky.
According to NASA, the Perseids are fragments of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits between the Sun and beyond the orbit of Pluto once every 133 years. Every year, the Earth passes near the path of the comet, and the debris left behind by Swift-Tuttle shows up as meteors in the sky.
The meteors should still be visible tonight and into the morning, but with a lower rate of Perseids seen per hour.
Photo: Nick Sulzer // Buckrail
Photo: Nick Sulzer // Buckrail
