The Perseids Meteor Shower 2013

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Somewhere in our solar system is a huge 26 kilometre (16 miles) wide chunk of rock and ice is on its 133 year long orbit around the Sun. This is the comet Swift Tuttle, an icy visitor larger than the one that is thought to have ended the party for the dinosaurs, and one that does come relatively close to the Earth and Moon. In 2026 the comet will pass by Earth at 15 million miles away, and should be a good sight similar to Comet Hale Bopp back in 1997. In the year 3044 Comet Swift Tuttle will actually come within a million miles of Earth, so far in the future that who knows where the human race will be by then.

The Perseids Meteor Shower 2013 | Astronomy Central