Perseids Meteor Shower 2022 Just Kicked Off—Here's How and When to Watch

The Perseids meteor shower, often considered to be the best meteor shower of the year, began to be visible on July 14 and will it last through the end of August.

The meteor shower is predicted to peak during the predawn hours of August 11-13, with stargazers having the chance to spot up to 60 to 100 meteors per hour. However, because the peak days coincide with the full moon, visibility during the peak times could be limited.

The Perseids occur annually during the summertime in the Northern Hemisphere and get their name due to the fact that the meteors appear to come from a point in the constellation of Perseus.

The annual meteor shower comes from a trail of dust and debris along the orbit of the comet Swift-Tuttle—last seen near Earth in 1992—called the Perseid cloud. As the comet orbits the sun once every 133 years, it leaves behind a trail of dust, which the Earth passes through during July and August. When entering the Earth's atmosphere, the comet debris, most of which measures around one-fifth of an inch across, burns up on entry, creating the beautiful streaks of light we see from the ground.

"Meteors or 'shooting stars' are the result of small pieces of natural space debris entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed—60 km a second in this case—and burning up high in the atmosphere, around 80 km above the ground," Robert Massey, Deputy Executive Director at the Royal Astronomical Society, told Newsweek.

"Fragments of debris slam into the atmosphere, are rapidly destroyed by heat resulting from air resistance, and then the air around them glows momentarily. Dust in this stream is a lot denser than in most of interplanetary space, so instead of a few meteors an hour, we see a lot more," Massey added.

In order to get the best view of the meteor shower despite the full moon during the peak, Massey advises hopeful meteor watchers to watch early on in the peak days.

"People wanting to watch the Perseids should probably sit out in the evening of August 11, and watch from when it gets dark until late evening as you might see a few 'Earth grazers,' meteors which skim the upper atmosphere and can be quite spectacular," he said.

However, thanks to the full moon, Massey doesn't expect this year's shower to be anything like the 2021 shower, which was particularly spectacular.

"If you're not a dedicated meteor observer I don't think it's worth making a special effort to stay up very late this year though," he said.

EarthSky.org advised viewers to attempt to view the shower as it ramps up in early August before the moon gets too bright.