LOOK MA, THERE’S A METEOR IN THE SKY
People gather to watch the Perseid Meteor shower in Dubai’s Al Qudra desert on Sunday. The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak in the early hours of Monday.
The Perseids arise when Earth passes through the debris of Comet 109P/SwiftTuttle, which was first discovered in 1862.”
Dubai Astronomy Group
dubai — Residents received a stellar treat on Sunday night as one of the most anticipated meteor showers of the year reached its peak and lit up the dark skies.
The Perseids Meteor Showers are one of the brightest meteor showers of the year, which reach their peak on the night of August 12, making it visible to a human eye, without the need of any equipment.
According to the Dubai Astronomy Group, this shower often produces 50 to 100 meteors per hour and in the Northern Hemisphere, it ranks “as the all-time favourite” meteor shower of the year.
The Dubai Astronomy Group and the Mleiha Archaeological and Eco-tourism Project in Sharjah organised a gathering for stargazers to watch the spectacle.
“Made of tiny space debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, the Perseids are named after the constellation Perseus. This is because the direction and radiant point, from which the shower seems to come in the sky, lies in the same direction as Perseus,” the Dubai Astronomy Group said.
“The Perseids arise when Earth passes through the debris of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which was first discovered in 1862. The comet’s last brush with the inner solar system occurred in 1992, leaving a dusty trail of debris that our planet passes through each summer. As these debris hit Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up and create visible streaks in the sky.”
The Dubai Astronomy Group has organised the gathering at the Al Qudra Desert, as it was an ideal place to watch the meteor show. The event also offered residents an opportunity to look through telescopes at other celestial objects, including Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, stars, globular clusters, nebula and other deep sky objects.
Hasan Al Hariri, CEO of the Dubai Astronomy Group, had said that during the time of the showers, the moon was a crescent and was set before the Perseid show got underway after midnight. “This is very favourable for sky waters and hope that it will make the Perseids probably the best shower of 2018,” the astronomy group said, adding that the Perseids are “rich in fireballs”, making the show even better.
Both locations in Dubai and Sharjah were more than an half an hour away from city lights, making them suitable spots to view the showers.