An astronomical night to observe the Perseid phenomenon will take place on Sunday, August 11 at the Riverland Bio Farm, in Kampia, Nicosia province.
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The event, organized by the Cyprus Space Exploration Organization (CSEO) and Riverland Bio Farm, will start at 20:30 and end at 02: 00.
“Enjoy the Perseids – this year without the interference of moonlight – under the dark starry skies of the countryside, with dozens of visible shooting stars entering our atmosphere during the peak of the phenomenon, reaching up to 100 per hour,” they say the organizers.
CSEO President George Danos and the other scientists will be available to the public giving information about the planets and constellations. Visitors are encouraged to bring a pillow or picnic blanket for comfort while observing. Visitors are also welcome to bring their own telescopes.
For those wishing to combine the evening with some further astronomy education, a series of space documentaries will be screened at the booth Riverland from 9pm.
The documentaries are 'Space Probes: Cassini and the Crown Jewel', 'Breakthrough: Jupiter's Moons and the Search for Life', 'The New Frontier: Gravity', 'Mystery Signal From Space' and 'Space Phenomena: Alien Planets'.< /p>
What are the Perseids
The Perseids were named after constellation of Perseus, as the shooting stars seem to come from there.
But this spectacle is due to Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle which takes 133 years to orbit the Sun and, at 26 kilometers in diameter, is the largest celestial object known to pass by our planet repeatedly.
So once a year, the Earth passes through the densest part of the matter left behind by the comet, and as these tiny pieces enter Earth's gravity, they collide with the our atmosphere and radiate into the sky, creating the characteristic bright line. Thus, fiery meteors can be observed that appear to fall from the sky to Earth.
The next time this comet will pass close by Earth again will be in 2126.
Comets are celestial bodies composed of ice, dust and rocks. As they approach the Sun, stellar radiation vaporizes their surface material, creating the nebula around their center, which diffuses the starlight and gives them their name.
Source: KYPE
