On the night of Aug. 11-12, 2012, astronomers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., conducted an "Up All Night" Web chat to observe the 2012 Perseid meteor shower. Our thanks to Bill Cooke, Danielle Moser and Rhiannon Blaauw for their expertise, and our thanks to you for all of the great questions we received. You can read the chat transcript at the link below.



› Chat Transcript (PDF, 622 Kb)



About the Perseids



The Perseids have been observed for at least 2,000 years and are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years. Each year in August, the Earth passes through a cloud of the comet's debris. These bits of ice and dust - most over 1,000 years old - burn up in the Earth's atmosphere to create one of the best meteor showers of the year. The Perseids can be seen all over the sky, but the best viewing opportunities will be across the northern hemisphere. Those with sharp eyes will see that the meteors radiate from the direction of the constellation Perseus.