Meteor shower expected to light up night sky

The skies are expected to shimmer with a “natural firework display” tomorrow night as a meteor shower crosses into the earth’s atmosphere, astronomy experts have predicted.

Although the Perseids meteor shower is an annual event, the British Royal Astronomical Society believes prospects for this year's showing are particularly good and could mean up to 60 shooting stars an hour.

Stars gazers will need only their own eyes to enjoy the natural occurrence, which is a result of material falling from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last passed near the Earth in 1992.

"Comet Swift-Tuttle won't be visiting our neck of the woods again until the year 2125, but every year we get this beautiful reminder as the Earth ploughs through the debris it leaves in its orbit" said Professor Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen's University Belfast.

“Every meteor is a speck of comet dust vaporising as it enters our atmosphere at 36 miles per second. What a glorious way to go.”

Meteors, commonly known as shooting stars, are the result of small particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed. These heat the air around them, causing the characteristic streak of light seen from the ground.

They mostly appear as fleeting flashes lasting less than a second, but the brightest ones leave behind trails of vaporised gases and glowing air molecules that may take a few seconds to fade.

The Perseids meteor shower is active each year from around mid-July to late-August, but for most of that period only a few meteors an hour will be visible. The best display will last from late Monday evening through to early Tuesday morning.