Perseid Meteor Shower Lighted the Night Skies with Fireball Streaks; NASA Website Provides Video Stream of the Said Event

The Perseid Meteor Shower is probably one of the most spectacular cosmic event this year. With its high activity rate during its peak, including the intense fireballs, this night-sky phenomenon was a must-see event. If, however, you missed this happening due to bright lights or cloudy condition, a Perseid Meteor Shower 2014 live stream was available, provided by NASA and Slooh.

This event happens annually during August, usually caused by debris from the massive Swift-Tuttle comet falling into the Earth’s atmosphere. Last Sunday’s “supermoon” seems to have threatened to eclipse the shooting stars, but the light show peaked in the early hours of Wednesday morning across the Northern Hemisphere.

The average number of streaks that can be seen across the sky per hour is up to 100 meteors every hour, and an average of 40 can be seen at their heights in good visibility, according to NASA.

The view for this amazing event can be most appreciated around 3am until dawn on Thursday in any time zone in the northern hemisphere. Those who were hampered by bad weather, however, can still witness the meteor shower via live stream on the NASA website.

Anyone wanting to catch the last moments of the event was advised to find an area away from towns and light pollution and look away from the moon.

Observation of the Perseids began 2,000 years ago, with the earliest information on this meteor shower found in Chinese annals in AD 36. The meteor shower is often referred as the “tears of Saint Lawrence” by the Catholics, as 10 August is the date of his martyrdom.

The comet Swift-Tuttle swings through the inner Solar System every 133 years, leaving behind a trail of dust. When the Earth passes through, the dust cloud particles hit the atmosphere at 140,000 mph and burn up in streaking flashes of light, creating the spectacle known as the Perseids.