Look Up! Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

The shower lights up the skies each summer, and is known for its bright, fast-moving meteors - often dubbed "shooting stars".

Tonight's the night | NASA

The Perseids originate from the debris left behind by the Comet Swift-Tuttle as it orbits the sun every 133 years and the Perseids "swift and bright" meteors often leave long "wakes" of light and colour behind as they streak through the Earth's atmosphere, leading to the best annual display of meteors, astronomers say.

This often spectacular event is also known for its fireballs, which are larger explosions of light and colour that persist longer than an average meteor streak, according to NASA.

The Perseids have been visible to the naked eye since late July and will continue to be features of the night sky until 23 August, but tonight is considered to be 'peak' Perseids. Under a dark sky, there can be between 50 and 100 meteors per hour, says NASA. And because they occur during the summer, the timing of their arrival has the added benefit of providing star gazers with warm night time weather in order to comfortably watch them.

The Perseids can be viewed all over the night sky, but they are best seen from the Northern Hemisphere.

The Perseids have been observed for nearly 2,000 years, with some of the earliest records from ancient China, and they are named after the constellation Perseus, from which the meteors appear to originate.