Perseids: how to see the meteor shower in Brazil – 08/11/2023 – Science
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Between this Saturday (12) and Sunday (13), whoever looks at the sky, with any luck, will have the chance to see the Perseid meteor shower.
Unfortunately for some Brazilians, this event in the night sky favors the Northern Hemisphere of the planet. This, however, means that the further north one is in the country, the better the viewing of the show will possibly be.
The meteor shower has been taking place since mid-July (and lasts until September), but the peak of the event, which can reach around 60 meteors per hour, occurs from the 12th to the 13th. crescent, which makes it easier to see the rain.
On the other hand, the radiant —the point in the sky where the meteor appears to be coming from— will be well hidden, appearing on the horizon only around 4 am, which should reduce the amount of meteors that can be seen.
In any case, not all is lost.
“Rain has the characteristic of crossing the sky, it has long trails. So, even latitudes like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Paraná will be able to see it in a not so bad way”, says Cássio Barbosa, astrophysicist at FEI.
The tip given by Barbosa is to look for a darker area, take a beach chair, lie down (to avoid a possible pain in the neck) and look at the sky for a long time.
What does the Perseid meteor shower
The rain is associated with the debris trail from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which takes 133 years to orbit the Sun once. The comet, which is considerably large, about twice the size of the celestial object believed to have contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs, was discovered in 1862 by Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle.
In 1865, Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered that the Perseid meteor shower originated from Swift-Tuttle.
According to NASA, this is the “best meteor shower of the year” — remembering that in the Northern Hemisphere it is more visible.
The event is also known for producing fireballs, which NASA says are larger, brighter bursts of light and color that tend to persist longer in the sky than a normal “streak” left by meteors.
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