
Make a wish on a shooting star! And then another! Every summer from about mid-July to mid-August, the sky is illuminated by beautiful shooting stars! And this year, the massive celestial event is already beginning.
Keep scrolling to get all the details on what’s happening and how you can enjoy it!
What is the Perseid Meteor Shower?
First thing’s first. What are we talking about? Great question. The Perseid Meteor Shower is an annual celestial event, which, when it occurs, allows thousands of ‘shooting starts’ to be visible from earth. According to Space.com, “the Perseids are caused by Earth passing through debris — bits of ice and rock — left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle which last passed close to Earth in 1992.”

NASA explains that the ‘shooting stars’ aren’t actually stars at all. They’re fragments of the Swift-Tuttle comet burning up as they enter the atmosphere. Sometimes they travel across the sky at up to 37 miles per second.
When’s the best time to watch for shooting stars?
The peak of the 2024 Perseid Meteor shower will be August 12th, during the darkest part of the night, until just before dawn on August 13th, 2024!