New Delhi: Celebrating the spectacular Perseid Meteor Shower, Google has posted an animated doodle that shows moving illustrations of meteor showers with a clam and soothing music playing in the background.
Drawing inspiration from travel and time-lapse footage documenting meteor showers, doodler Sophie Diao takes users on an animated journey for this year's Perseid Meteor Shower.
Google had first doodled the Perseid Meteor Shower back in 2009. "We've doodled them before, but we wanted to bring them back this year to encourage users to learn more about this fantastic celestial event," said doodler Sophie Diao.
The Perseid Meteor Shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by comet Swift-Tuttle. This Meteor Shower peaks on August 11 through August 13. But this year the biggest and brightest full Moon of the year is facing off against the Perseid Meteor Shower, and therefore, the outcome is expected to be beautiful.
The source of the Perseid meteor shower is Comet Swift Tuttle. Every 133 years the huge comet swings through the inner solar system and leaves behind a trail of dust and grit. When Earth passes through the debris zone, specks of comet-stuff hit the atmosphere at 140,000 mph and disintegrate in flashes of light. These meteors are called Perseids because they fly out of the constellation Perseus.
In a normal year, dark-sky observers typically count more than 100 Perseids per hour. But this is no normal year as this time the supermoon is facing off against meteor shower. "This is bad news for the Perseids," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Lunar glare wipes out the black-velvety backdrop required to see faint meteors, and sharply reduces counts."
Also, notes Cooke, "the Perseids are rich in fireballs as bright as Jupiter or Venus. These will be visible in spite of the glare."
Using a network of meteor cameras distributed across the USA, Cooke's team has been tracking fireball activity since 2008, and they have built up a database of hundreds of events to analyze. Their data show the Perseids are the undisputed 'fireball champion' of annual meteor showers.
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Since 2008, the Perseids have produced more fireballs than any other annual meteor shower. The Geminids are a close second.
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