Star rain in The Hague: soon you will see 20 shooting stars per hour

These shooting stars come from the so-called Perseid rain. That’s a swarm of meteors made up of leftover debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle. Because the earth in its orbit around the sun moves through the debris cloud, we see this meteor shower around the same date every year. “Compared to other years, the number of visible meteors from the Perseids is low,” says Jaco van Wezel, meteorologist at weeronline.nl.

Fewer shooting stars in The Hague

“ Under favorable conditions, the Perseids can produce such a 100 will yield shooting stars per hour. The fact that there are fewer this year is mainly due to the full moon. Because of the disturbing light from the moon, only the brightest shooting stars can be seen,” explains Jaco. The real peak time is on Saturday at 00: 1660050533 in the morning and then it is already light. “Nor is the Perseid meteor shower perpendicular to our heads. When that is the case, they are best visible,” says Jaco.

What is a shooting star?
Shooting stars are flashes of light that occasionally appear in the starry sky. However, the flashes have nothing to do with stars. They are caused by space debris, often no larger than a grain of sand. That debris comes approximately 45 end up in the Earth’s atmosphere kilometers above our heads. Due to the high speeds, the air at the front of such a grit particle is compressed, heated and made to glow. We see that as a flash. The velocities of the Perseids are usually more than 200.030 km/h. The Perseids are characterized by their clarity and speed. Sometimes you can also see a plume of light behind the shooting star.