In today's image, we see a number of Perseids from the shower of 2018. The shower occurs when Earth passes through debris left behind by a comet. When these tiny pieces of material strike Earth's atmosphere, they become meteors or shooting stars. The current meteor shower will be prominent this week, peaking on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: wagnerastronomy@gmail.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.