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:
-
Sanxiantai Dragon Bridge in Taitung, Taiwan
-
A treaty for science
-
Full moon
-
Saint Andrews Day
-
An unlikely friendship in the wild
-
A theatrical dream
-
Hey neighbor, it s World Space Week!
-
Happy Mother’s Day
-
Pi Day
-
Lake Bled, Slovenia
-
Northern hawk-owl
-
The scene of a literary crime
-
The fantastic winter fox
-
It’s Art Deco Weekend in Miami
-
Smoking nights in Austria
-
Snow buntings take flight
-
International Whale Shark Day
-
Bohemian waxwings in Canada
-
Big wheels on a big mountain
-
Walruses in Svalbard, Norway
-
Hang Sơn Đoòng Cave, Vietnam
-
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the institution s 175th anniversary
-
The Lena Delta Wildlife Reserve in Siberia, Russia
-
A tower of remembrance
-
West Cornwall Covered Bridge, Connecticut
-
Sea lion in a kelp forest, Baja California, Mexico
-
Beware the Ides of March
-
Daylight saving time
-
Seattle Central Library, Seattle, Washington
-
Wilderness Act anniversary
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

