Perseid meteor shower visible from Vietnam early next week

Sky-watchers in Vietnam have a chance to see the Perseid meteor shower on the night of August 12 and early morning of August 13, according to Vietnam Astronomy and Cosmology Association (VACA).

In 2024, the Perseid meteor shower is active between July 17 and August 24, with the number of meteors increasing every night until it reaches a peak in mid-August, after which it will tail off. This year the peak falls on the night of the 12th and before dawn on August 13.

Dang Vu Tuan Son, VACA President, said that people in Vietnam can observe the shower after midnight, the most ideal time is after 2am of August 13.

The Perseids put on a dazzling display every August as Earth plows trough a stream of debris left behind by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which swings around the Sun every 133 years.

Ranging in size from sand grains to boulders, the comet fragments slam into our atmosphere at speeds of more than a hundred thousand miles an hour (161,000 kilometers per hour), causing the meteors to burn up and become bright, fast-moving streamers in the night sky, according to American TV channel National Geographic.

For years, the Perseid meteor shower has long been an anticipated event for Vietnamese sky-watchers, as it is one of the year’s two biggest sky shows besides Geminids, Son said.

During the peak, observers can see up to 60-100 meteors per hour under ideal conditions, he added.

He said that people need to look up at the northeastern sky at an angle of 30-50 degrees from the ground under the ideal conditions.

If the sky is cloudy or rainy, meteors will not be visible./.

VNA