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what's up for august

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the perseids and a comet ison update

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hello and welcome i'm jane houston jones

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from nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in

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pasadena california if you've never seen

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a meteor shower the summer perseids are

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a great introduction

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meteor showers are the colorful debris

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of a comet or sometimes the debris of a

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fragmented asteroid when a comet nears

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the sun its icy surface heats up and

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releases clouds of gas and dirt forming

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a tail of debris that can stretch for

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millions of miles

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as earth passes near this dusty tail

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some of the small dust particles hit our

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atmosphere and burn up creating great

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celestial fireworks for us to enjoy

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the perseids the most popular meteor

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shower of the year will peak monday

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august 12th

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the meteor shower radiates from the

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constellation perseus which rises in the

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northeast after sunset just follow the

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milky way from south to the north to

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find it you'll see some perseids all

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month long before and after midnight but

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you'll see the greatest number of

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meteors after midnight on sunday and

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monday mornings on either side of the

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shower's peak with clear dark skies up

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to 100 meteors per hour are projected

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but even if you don't see hundreds

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you'll see plenty of fast bright

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comet ison which was visible at a very

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faint magnitude 15.5 from january

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through may is expected to be visible

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through small telescopes in late august

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it should be visible low in the pre-dawn

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sky in the constellation cancer near m44

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the beehive cluster

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how bright will it be will its debris

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create its own meteor shower

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stay tuned for more news in the coming

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months

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you can read more about small bodies

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such as comets and asteroids at

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asteroid watch

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and you can read about all of nasa's