Table showing how many meteors will be seen per hour.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA

Watch Out for the Meteors!
News story originally written on August 10, 1999

This week's solar eclipse isn't the only thing to watch! The Perseid meteor shower will peak on August 12-13, 1999. There could be as many as 150 "shooting stars" per hour. The best time to look is very early in the morning.

Meteors are small pieces of dust and ice that break off a comet. They are about the size of a grain of sand. They look so bright because they burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

The best way to see the shower is to lie on your back facing north. It will look like the meteors are coming from the constellation Perseus. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere you can watch the shower. But if you live in the Southern Hemisphere, you will have to watch it on the web. NASA will show it live on the link below!

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Last Solar Eclipse of the Millennium on August 11

The last solar eclipse of this millennium was on August 11, 1999. Only people in Europe, the Middle East and India could see it. This was a total solar eclipse, which means that the Moon completely blocked...more

1999--A Year in Review...

It was another exciting and frustrating year for the space science program. It seemed that every step forward led to one backwards. Either way, NASA led the way to a great century of discovery. Unfortunately,...more

STS-95 Launch: "Let the wings of Discovery lift us on to the future."

The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 29th at 2:19 p.m. EST. The sky was clear and the weather was great. This was the America's 123rd manned space mission. A huge...more

Moon Found Orbiting Asteroid

Scientists found a satellite orbiting the asteroid, Eugenia. This is the second one ever! A special telescope allows scientists to look through Earth's atmosphere. The first satellite found was Dactyl....more

U.S. is Fed Up with Russia

The United States wants Russia to put the service module in orbit! The module is part of the International Space Station. It was supposed to be in space over 2 years ago. Russia just sent supplies to the...more

More on Recent Coronal Mass Ejection

A coronal mass ejection (CME) happened on the Sun last month. The material that was thrown out from this explosion passed the ACE spacecraft. ACE measured some exciting things as the CME material passed...more

Mother Nature's Air Conditioning

Trees and plants are a very important part of this Earth. Trees and plants are nature's air conditioning because they help keep our Earth cool. On a summer day, walking bare-foot on the sidewalk burns,...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA