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IIf you saw some meteors streaking across the sky last night, it was the Perseid meteor shower.
The rain, which happens once a year, usually starts in mid-July, but is barely noticeable then. The peak – when stargazers can see the most meteors – typically occurs in mid-August and can be seen all over the world.
The best time to observe the Perseid meteor shower in the US was the night of August 11th. But if you missed it, don’t worry: you can still see a good amount of meteors in the early morning hours of August 13th. The meteor shower is considered the best of the year – people observing it can see around 20 to 30 meteors per hour if they look up into a dark sky, away from city lights.
A meteor shower occurs when Earth travels through the debris of a comet called Swift-Tuttle. As pieces of this debris enter Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up because of friction, leading to the streaks in the sky that most people know as “shooting stars” or “shooting stars.”
Photographers captured beautiful images of this year’s event.
Here are some of the best photos:
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This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
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