TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesians will be able to witness the Perseid meteor shower taking place from July 17, up to August 24 and will peak by the end of this week on Sunday, August 12.

“The meteor shower will be around 55-80 meteors per hour,” said Avivah Yamani, a member of Bandung’s astronomical group Langit Selatan in Bandung, on Thursday, August 9.

The international meteor network forecasted that the meteors can travel up to 60 kilometers per second and that the shower will originate from the Perseus constellation. “The constellation is between north-northeast,” said Avivah.

The Perseid meteor shower is the debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet, which is said to be discovered by two American astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle in 1862.

According to langitselatan.com, the comet shower will be observable again from Earth in the year 2126 which is based on its 130 year cycle. Several of the comet dusts from its tail will be pulled by earth’s gravitation where it will burn at earth’s atmosphere.

The peak hour of the Perseid meteor shower, according to Avivah, will be visible in Indonesia starting from 00:00 Western Indonesia Time (WIB) of August 12, and is predicted to intensify by 03:00 WIB.

ANWAR SISWADI