Get ready for one of the most dazzling celestial displays of the year—the Perseid meteor shower. Active from mid-July through late August, this year it reaches its spectacular peak on the night of August 12 and into the early hours of August 13. The Perseids light up the skies when Earth passes through a trail of icy and rocky debris left behind by Comet Swift–Tuttle, which last passed close to our planet in 1992. These meteors are called the Perseids because they appear to streak from the direction of the constellation Perseus.
Perseid meteor shower over Nevada
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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Gaztelugatxe at sunset, Basque Country, Spain
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A night on the (ghost) town
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Flower of Life symbol drawn in snow
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Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia
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Going with the floe
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International Jazz Day
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International Whale Shark Day
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Aqueduct, Arkadia Park, Poland
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Solar Impulse 2 in Honolulu
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A story of wind and ice
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It’s Napping Day
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Male kori bustard, Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
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American robin
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Rice terraces of Mù Cang Chải, Yên Bái province, Vietnam
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Nesting season for the leatherbacks
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A notorious advocate for women
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Celebrating a Paris landmark
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Mid-Autumn Festival
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Preservation Hall in New Orleans, Louisiana
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico
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We did not invent this, honest
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Arrr, it be Talk Like a Pirate Day
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Sundance Film Festival opens in Park City
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Coral Reef Awareness Week
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Atrani, Amalfi Coast, Italy
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Muskoxen in Dovre-Sunndalsfjella National Park, Norway
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Spring equinox
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Totally Thames Festival, London
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Mediterranean red sea stars
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

