Meteors are solar system material (dust, grains, pebbles, rocks, etc.) that enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up. Since, visually, meteors look like stars streaking across the sky, they are commonly called "shooting stars." If a meteor is sufficiently large, part of it may survive and strike the Earth, in which case it is called a meteorite. Meteorites provide astronomers with useful information about our solar system. (The solar system consists of the Sun, the planets and all the other objects in this region such as comets and asteroids.)

Particularly prolific periods for meteors are called meteor showers. They typically occur at specific times of the year. The reason for this is simple. Certain regions of our solar system have high concentrations of debris. Each time the Earth passes through such a region during its journey around the Sun, a meteor shower takes place. Many of these meteoroid regions are created from the passing of a comet. This is the case for the Perseids. Every year in early August, Earth enters a region of outer space with significant numbers of meteoroids. This solar system debris has been created by Comet P/Swift-Tuttle.

Morning is a better time for observing meteors than evening because the morning night sky faces the region of outer space that the Earth is moving toward. Click here to see a picture of the situation.