Muscat - The Oman Astronomical Society (OAS) has said that the skies of the Sultanate of Oman are currently witnessing the Perseid meteor shower, which will continue until August 24.
The shower will be at its peak between Monday evening and the early hours of Tuesday.
Ashwaq bint Nasser al Siyabi, a member of the executive committee of the Omani Astronomical Society, said Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes near the orbit of a comet in its orbit around the sun and penetrates a crowd of meteors left behind by that comet.
As for the Perseid meteor shower, the Earth passes near meteors left behind by the Swift-Tuttle comet, which results in dust particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere and burning up during their entry, resulting in a bright light strip at a speed of about 72 kilometers per second at an altitude of about 70 to 100 kilometers.
During its peak, around 60 to 100 meters can be seen per hour from a dark place away from light pollution.
These showers usually last for hours and may last for days or weeks, as is the case with the Perseid meteor shower, which began in mid-July and continues until the end of August.
The Perseids are famous for producing extremely bright meteors (fireballs).
No meteor shower produces anything like the comet Swift-Tuttle, which is responsible for this meteor shower.
It orbits the sun once every 130 years, and its nucleus is about 26 kilometers in diameter. It naturally breaks apart into pieces. A recent five-year survey indicates that the number of fireballs from the Perseids is greater than any other meteor shower.
She concluded: Observing the phenomenon requires being in a dark location away from sources of light pollution or any obstacles such as tall trees and looking northeast near the Perseus constellation, which is the apparent source of these meteors from after midnight on Monday until before dawn on Tuesday.
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