Normally, the Perseids regale Earthlings with a show of about 100-120 shooting stars per hour. Prepare for meteor ‘outburst’Northern hemisphere sky-gazers are in for a special treat on Thursday night with a rare shooting star “outburst”, which astronomers hope will not be marred by clouds and a bright Moon. For about an hour around 2300 GMT, there will be more than double the usual fireball activity associated with the annual Perseid meteor shower. Each meteor is a piece of broken-off comet, which explodes as it hits Earth’s atmosphere. “There will be 200 or maybe as many as 300 (shooting stars) per hour,” observed from a very dark site, astronomer Mark Bailey of the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland told AFP.

Source: Manila Bulletin August 09, 2016 03:45 UTC