2013 Perseid Meteor Shower: NASA Says Upcoming Meteor Shower Creates More Fireballs Display

The 2013 Perseid meteor shower is anticipated to offer sky gazers an amazing show during its peak time from August 11 and 12. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) researchers claim that a viewing bonus will be seen in the night skies for the upcoming Perseid meteor shower creates more fireballs display, hence, getting the "Fireball Champion" title.

Photographer Tyler Leavitt captured this bright Perseid meteor on August 12 as it lit up the sky just outside of
Las Vegas, Nevada during the peak of the 2012 Perseid meteor shower. Photo credit: Tumblr/lawsoffate

"We have found that one meteor shower produces more fireballs than any other. It's the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on August 12th and 13^th," Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office declared in a statement.

Viewers can see over 100 meteors per hour during the peak activity with bright fireballs flashing across the skies even in urban or light polluted areas. Mr Cooke together with his team of scientists has been utilizing meteor cameras to track fireballs in the region of southern U.S. since 2008.

The size of the meteor shower's originator, the Swift-Tuttle cloud, could cause the elevated number of fireballs created during the Perseid peak activity. "Comet Swift-Tuttle has a huge nucleus - about 26 kilometers [16 miles] in diameter. Most other comets are much smaller, with nuclei only a few kilometers across. As a result, Comet Swift-Tuttle produces a large number of meteoroids, many of which are large enough to produce fireballs," Mr Cooke explained.

In viewing the 2013 Perseid meteor shower, Bill Cooke suggests that interested spectators should look up to the skies starting at 10:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. local time during the peak activity. "Get away from city lights. While fireballs can be seen from urban areas, the much greater number of faint Perseids is visible only from the countryside," Cooke recommended.

Furthermore, astrophysicist Doug Duncan of the University of Colorado declared that the 2013 Perseid meteor shower will yield a good display over Colorado starting Saturday, August 10, until Tuesday, August 13. "The moon will be nearly new, so it's an especially good time to see the meteor shower," stated Mr Duncan, the director of CU-Boulder's Fiske Planetarium and Sommers-Bausch Observatory.

The astrophysicist further added: "A dark sky makes a big difference. If you're watching from Denver, you might see a couple of meteors per hour. From the suburbs you might see five to 10 per hour. In the mountains, where the sky is really dark, you could see 50 or more per hour." Mr Duncan encourages the viewers to set up camps outside and stay up late for the best viewing experience of the 2013 Perseid meteor shower.

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