The sky prepares to offer, as every year, the most dazzling astronomical show of the summer. , known as, will reach their maximum splendor during the warm night of August 12. At that time, millions of dust and gas particles will cross the sky 60 kilometers per second.
The best meteor rain north of Ecuador was born that it was discovered in 1862, an icy object that completes its orbit every 133 years. According to César González, about ten o’clock at the night of the Spanish peninsular hour the fragments detached from this celestial body will disintegrate when they come into contact with the earth’s atmosphere, generating bright flashes of light.
“They burn and get incandescent and that is when you see in the sky a light line that is neither more nor less than the rock disintegrating,” he details. Just like a traveler who with Shake the snow of shoulders. This phenomenon occurs because the earth crosses that area of the space full of waste left by the passage that literally swallows and sweeps with all the particles suspended in its trajectory.
A comet, González indicates, is a mixture of dust and ice: if you take a handful of each one with your hands and you will have the essence of what it is. When approaching the star king, heat melts that ice that leaves gases and also fine particles. “They are not stars falling,” says Miguel Rodríguez Alarcón, a predoctoral researcher at. “What we have is a kite with an orbit full of dust. It is as if the sand fell,” he exemplifies.
They are so tiny that many do not exceed the size of a grain of rice. Although every summer varies both the intensity and the number of meteors, unfortunately the Perseids will reach their maximum splendor shortly after the full moon, which will affect the amount of visible meteors.
“The Moon is a source of natural light pollution. So, unfortunately this year is not the best to see the stars,” adds Rodríguez Alarcón. The natural satellite of the Earth acts as a Huge light focus which will make the visibility of another celestial body difficult.
Where to see the Perseids?
From anywhere in the northern hemisphere the meteor rain is visible. At 10 o’clock at night there will be a lot of twilight light and also the place of the sky from which all meteors seem (and which is called radiant) will still be low with respect to the horizon. Both experts agree that the best places to see them are the places that have a very dark sky, where there are the least amount of light pollution possible, that is, the farthest one that can be of the cities.
It is not recommended to use any type of instrument that increases neither prismatic nor telescope, says Miguel Rodríguez Alarcón. “In the Canary Islands we have it easy, the best sites are the summits of the islands of Tenerife and La Palma,” he adds.
In the case of the Peninsula, rural areas with little light pollution are the ideal to appreciate this phenomenon. “The field is fine,” suggests the disseminator César Campos and mountainous areas that have a clearer horizon.
“The best thing can be done is to carry a loaf or a blanket, lie on the ground and only with your eyes be aware of all areas of the sky,” he concludes.
