Paris: A bright Moon will outshine the annual Perseids meteor shower, which will peak on Saturday with only a fifth the usual number of shooting stars visible to Earthlings, astronomers say.
The Moon will be more than half-full, in a so-called gibbous phase, which means its light will spoil stargazers’ view in a similar way to that of urban light pollution.
“To be honest, it’s not a good year” for the Perseids, said Robert Massey, acting executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in London. “You might, if you’re lucky, see maybe 20 an hour,” he said.
The Perseids happen when Earth hits a belt of debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle on its elongated, 133-year orbit around the Sun.
Each shooting star is a piece of comet dust, burning up from friction as it hits Earth’s atmosphere.
Normally, Northern Hemisphere viewers are treated to a spectacle of about 100-120 visible shooting stars per hour when the phenomenon peaks around mid-August — depending on the Moon and the weather.
Last year, there was an unusual “outburst” with more than double the usual fireball activity as Earth passed through especially dense “ribbons” of debris within the comet’s dust belt.
The Moon was full on August 7, and will have waned to approximately 80 per cent illumination by Saturday.
“This is not much better than a full moon and will certainly pose a challenge in viewing the Perseids this year,” said the International Meteor Organisation (IMO). — AFP
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