The Perseidsalso known as Tears of San Lorenzothey are here. Our planet is going through the wake that leaves the kite Swift-Tuttle In the orbit around the sun that completes every 133 years. The fragments and remains of this celest body of 26 kilometers They cause meteor rain disintegrating in the atmosphere that can be seen tonight, although the peak of maximum activity takes place, in Spain, during the daytime hours. Even so, this early morning you can see until 200 meteors per hour From locations without light pollution, not from urban environments.
Another recommendation to enjoy the show is to contemplate it from the highest possible altitude. And for that nothing is better located than the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits the earth at a height of between 350 and 450 kilometers. Against what could be thought, given its privileged position, images of the meteors of the Perseids from the ISS have been captured. It is not simple, because the space station moves more than 27,000 kilometers per hour and meteors enter the atmosphere at a speed around 200,000 km/h. In these circumstances, after more than three decades in orbit, only 3 astronauts They have managed to capture them in image.
The first one was NASA’s astronaut Ron Garanhe August 13, 2011during expedition 28. His image shows the glow of a meteor on the horizon of the earth. To capture it, Garan stood in the Observation dome of the ISS at the time of greater activity of the meteor rain, obtaining a great contrast between the earth and the space.
Scott Kellyanother NASA astronaut achieved the second image of the Perseidas taken from the ISS four years later, the August 13, 2015during expedition 44. Kelly, which spent a year at the ISS, captured an impressive image of prolonged exposure in which the traces of light of the persistes on the earth are appreciated.
Finally, the Astronaut de Roscosmos Oleg Kononenkoone of the people who spent the most in space with 1,111 days accumulated, the photograph took his photograph August 9, 2024. A meteor can be seen in contrast on the lighting of a city that appears moved in the image, but it is in which a perseiper is appreciated in greater detail.
There are no more photographs of the Perseidas taken from the ISS, but a video that recorded the Meteor Chamber From the station the August 10, 2016 on Pakistan and in which the passage of two persistes can be seen.