Perseids Meteor Shower 2016 Live Stream: 200 Meteors Per Hour To Light Up Sky On Thursday Night

The Perseids Meteor Shower 2016 is going to be one of its kind as it is expected to appear at double the usual rates with as many as 150 to 200 shooting meteors per hour. Tonight, meteor-catchers will get a chance to see shooting "stars" streak across the skies as the meteor shower reaches its peak. In fact, NASA is expecting that there will be more meteors this year as Jupiter's gravity has tugged some streams of comet material closer to Earth.

Astronomers predict that if conditions are right as many as 200 meteors per hour will light up the sky on the night of Thursday August 11 into the morning of Friday August 12. The celestial event takes place every year when the Earth passes through the long trail of dust and debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. It is when the debris burn up at the time of entering the Earth's atmosphere that it emits light which is visible from the ground, reported Space.com.

The Perseids Meteor Shower 2016 is going to be the most intense on Aug. 11 when Earth will pass through the densest and the dustiest area. This is the time when people will be able to witness the most meteors in the shortest amount of time. Normally, the rate of Perseid Meteor Shower stands at 50 to 75 meteors per hour. According to NASA, this is going to be the first time since 2009 that the meteor shower rate will be double the normal.

Meteor expert at NASA, Bill Cooke has suggested sky gazers to head to a dark area, in the suburbs or countryside, where there is less pollution. They should allow about 45 minutes for their eyes to adjust to the dark. The best time to watch out for the shooting stars is around 2 or 3am.

For those who won't be able to catch the meteor show, they can access the live stream of the Perseid Meteor Shower 2016 offered by online observatory, Slooh.