Skywatchers are in for a treat this weekend. The annual Perseid meteor shower is happening as we speak, with its peak happening early Monday morning.
Scott Young is Planetarium Astronomer at Manitoba Museum. He explains that what appear to be shooting stars in the night sky are actually tiny pieces of dust. Young says these ancient particles, which are about the size of a grain of sand, are crashing into the earth at high speed and then burning up because of friction with our atmosphere.
"Basically this little piece of dust hits us at a relative speed of tens of thousands of kilometres an hour," says Young. "And in a collision between the giant planet earth and a piece of dust, it's pretty clear who wins on that one."
Following the crash, the dust vaporizes and Young says we can see it disintegrate in a flash of light.
Young says similar to how you have dust in your home, there are pockets in space where dust collects. He notes dust bunnies exist in space and at this time every year we travel through this dust bunny as the earth orbits the sun.
"Instead of the random dust that is hitting us every so often, we're getting pelted with a whole bunch of dust from this cosmic dust bunny," adds Young.
The Perseid 'dust bunny' is more than a one night event. Young says the shooting stars become visible about one week before peak night and each night you can see more and more. And then following peak night, they remain visible for about another week, with fewer and fewer shooting stars each night.
As mentioned, peak night is early Monday morning. Young says from about 3 am to 5 am is when you should be able to see the greatest number of meteors. And, though it is called a meteor shower, Young says the word 'shower' might be a slight exaggeration. At its peak, Young says you might see between 50 and 60 meteors per hour.
"People sometimes think these things are going to rain down from the heavens and fill the whole sky," says Young. "It's a lot slower pace than that, but it's still many, many times more than you would see on a typical random night."
Of course, any thoughts of watching for shooting stars are wiped out if the night is cloudy. Further to that, Young says your best bet is to leave the town or city where light pollution can disrupt your view.
Young says these meteors are radiating from the constellation of Perseus. He notes they can be visible anywhere in the sky, probably generating from the northeast.
"I like to bring a reclining lawn chair or a blanket so that my face is aimed right at the sky as much as possible," he explains. "And then I just put whatever the local brightness is, the town or the city, to my back, so that I'm looking at the darkest part of the sky."
And one more thing. Young strongly encourages you stay off your cell phone while star gazing.
"Once you are out under the stars, your eyes adapt to the darkness," he explains. "As soon as you turn on any kind of light, a flashlight or your phone, or whatever, your eyes instantly lose that dark sensitivity."
He notes after staring at your cell phone, it can take several minutes for your eyes to adapt to darkness again.
"Avoid all the lights and technology and just look up at the natural beauty of the stars," says Young. "It's amazingly therapeutic to do that."