Celestial Show Peaks this Weekend

The Perseid meteor shower is making its annual trek across the night sky.  Astronomers say peak viewing will take place this weekend, when up about 70 meteors per hour will be visible. 

Peak viewing hours take place after 10-p.m. and will be enhanced this year by the new moon.

The shower is actually created by bits of dust and debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle.  According to NASA, the object is 16-miles across, which makes it nearly twice the size of the meteor that presumably hit the earth 65-million years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The comet last passed the earth in 1992 and is scheduled to do so again in 2126.


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