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Meteor Shower Could Be Spectacular This Year, According To NASA

earthsky.org
Wiggins suggests going out after midnight on Friday morning and just look up.

The Perseids meteor shower will peak during Thursday night and early Friday morning. According to experts, this year’s shower could be one of the most spectacular because of an increased rate of meteors. 

The last Perseid outburst happened seven years ago. And according to Patrick Wiggins, Utah’s NASA Ambassador, some years really are better than others.

“Some years there’s a lot of stuff and people go out and, ‘Ooh, awe, ooh, awe.’ Other years they go out and we hit a dry patch and they just kind of go, ‘Eh, that’s what I get for listening to these astronomers. I’ve wasted the whole night,'" Wiggins said. "So you really can’t predict with hundred percent accuracy if a meteor shower is going to happen.” 

Wiggins suggests going out after midnight on Friday morning and just looking up. He said if you spend only five or ten minutes though, you might not see anything. But if you spend an hour, you could see quite a lot. 

“If we have a really good Perseids, you might see one or two per minute," Wiggins said. "As a matter of fact, there have been times when I’ve seen more than that. But a good Perseids meteor shower might say a hundred per hour.”

There are actually two other meteor showers throughout the year which are visible in Utah. One is the Geminids in early December and another is the Quadrantids in early January.

“And those [are] obviously early in the morning in December, January—not many people do that. And that’s why you typically just hear about this one in the summer time," Wiggins said. "But technically, yeah, there are meteor showers happening several times a year.”