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:
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Extraterrestrial Culture Day
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Sea Otter Awareness Week
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Lick Observatory
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Heceta Head Light, Florence, Oregon
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Discovery Day in Yukon, Canada
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Birch trees, Drammen, Norway
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Tiny fliers head south
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Happy holidays!
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Groundhog Day arrives—beyond a shadow of a doubt
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Maritime forest on Cumberland Island, Georgia
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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
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Happy Boxing Day!
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Presidents Day
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Farmers Day
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Black History Month
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International Polar Bear Day
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National Roller Coaster Day
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The globe skimmers return
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Plate-billed mountain toucan with orchids, Ecuador
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Barracudas at Shark Reef, Ras Mohammed National Park, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
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Porto Cathedral, Portugal
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Lavender fields on the Valensole Plateau in Provence, France
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Friendship Day
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Winter in the Finnish wilds
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A Eurasian lynx in Siberia
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Feeling lazy? Today s your day.
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Zion National Park, Utah
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What’s blooming in New Zealand?
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Indigenous Peoples Day
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What are we looking at?
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

