The Earth is moving towards the Perseids meteor shower, a ‘shooting star’ display for people looking up to the sky.
The constellation is rising in the northeastern night sky come nightfall.
The event happens at the same time every year, it peaks around the evening of Tuesday, 11 August and into the following day.
The pieces that make up the Perseids were lost long ago by Comet Swift-Tuttle, which left behind trail of rubble as it orbited around the Sun.
Each year, the Earth flies through debris as it moves through the solar system.
When the tiny pieces collide with the Earth’s atmosphere, about 80 miles in the air, they heat up and create a glow that can be visible from Earth.
The best way to see the show is simply to head out and look up. Experts advise finding somewhere with as little light pollution as possible, lying back on something comfortable, and making sure you leave time to have your eyes acqaint themselves with the darkness of the night sky so that the meteors can be more easily seen.
It is worth doing so relatively early in the night: the best time to see it will be after the end of the evening twilight, between 9 pm and 10 pm approaximately.
