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Falling Perseids meteor shower will be observed today.

(PTI) Perseids, a prolific meteor shower is associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, said Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) Director C B Devgun.

"Around 11.30 PM to 2 AM one can expect a Zenithal Hour Rate (ZHR) of about 100-120 meteor per hour," said N Sri Raghunandan Kumar from Planetary Society of India.

Thus, one can expect one meteor in every two minute, he added.

To watch the meteor shower, one should concentrate towards the northeastern sky as the shooting stars, as they are also called, will be more visible in the direction, Kumar said.


The Earth is expected to pass through a denser-than-usual filament of dust from Perseids parent comet Swift-Tuttle, Devgun said.

The meteor is named Perseids because the point it appears to come from, lies in the constellation Perseus.

He said the meteors can be seen all across the sky, but because of the path of Swift-Tuttles orbit, Perseids is primarily visible in the northern hemisphere.

Astronomers have been observing Perseids meteor shower for about last 2,000 years, with the first known information coming from the Far East, Devgun said.

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