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what's up for August if you've never

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seen a meteor shower now is your chance

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hello and welcome I'm Jane Houston Jones

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with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

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Pasadena California have you ever

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wondered what makes these cosmic

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fireworks meteor showers are just

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colorful debris from a passing comet or

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occasionally the debris from a broken up

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asteroid when a comet nears the Sun it's

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icy surface heats up this causes clouds

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of gas dust and dirt to be released

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forming a tale of debris that can

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stretch for millions of miles as Earth

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passes near this dusty tale some of the

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small dust particles hit our atmosphere

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they burn up and create great celestial

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fireworks we can all enjoy NASA

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generates meteor shower forecasts to

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prevent potential hazards to spacecraft

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that are launching and orbiting Earth

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NASA also monitors these showers to

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check on the accuracy of the forecasts

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this month you can get excellent views

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of the perseid meteor shower you won't

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need a telescope or binoculars in fact

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meteor showers are best seen with the

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unaided eye you'll see some Perseids all

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month long both before and after

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midnight but the real fireworks will

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appear in the wee hours of Monday August

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thirteenth between two and four a.m.

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local time you may see up to 60 meteors

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per hour you'll see more if you can get

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away from the city lights

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meteor showers are best seen in the

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hours starting after midnight that's

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when earth is facing the direction where

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the dust particles are colliding with

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our atmosphere as a bonus for staying up

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late you'll get a great view of Mars in

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the eastern sky it won't look really big

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or bright you'll have to wait a few

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months for that for information about

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this month's lunar eclipse plus some

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activities for teachers and parents

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alike visit education JPL nasa gov and

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click on the what's up button you can

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learn about all of NASA's missions at