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Perseid meteor shower lights up the night sky
Meteors lit up the sky before dawn Thursday. NASA has called this year's Perseids meteor shower "one of the best potential viewings in years."
Stars and shooting stars are pictured during the annual Perseids meteor shower, with the 2827-meters Drusenfluh mountain (L) and the 2817-meters Sulzfluh mountain (R), in St. Antoenien in the canton of Grisons, Switzerland, on Aug. 13, 2015.
By Olivia Kestin, Olivia Kestin
Meteors lit up the sky before dawn Thursday. NASA has called this year's Perseids meteor shower "one of the best potential viewings in years."
"The Perseids have been observed for at least 2,000 years and are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun once every 133 years," according to NASA. "Every August, the Earth passes through a cloud of the comet’s orbital debris. This debris field -- mostly created hundreds of years ago -- consists of bits of ice and dust shed from the comet which burn up in Earth’s atmosphere to create one of the premier meteor showers of the year."
Photographers and observers captured the action. Check out the photos below.