Updated: Perseid Meteor Outburst on August 14, 2021

This is a composite image of meteors captured from the San Diego area between 8-9 Universal Time (1:00-2:00am PDT) on August 14, 2014. This camera faces overhead and the radiant lies outside the frame to the right. The long streaks are aircraft. Courtesy University of Arizona

On the morning of August 14, 2021, the Perseid meteor shower displayed an unexpected outburst of meteors between 06:00 and 09:00 Universal Time (1:00-4:00am CDT). So far we have received visual confirmation of an impressive display of Perseids from observers in Wyoming and Ontario, Canada. AllSky camera systems located in Iowa have recorded between 900-1100 meteors each during the course of the entire night. My AllSky system, located outside of San Diego, CA,  recorded just under 600 meteors with cloud interference and a lower radiant altitude. The cause of this outburst is currently unknown but is probably the result of an unknown filament of comet debris produced by comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle as it raced through the inner solar system many centuries ago . Rates are normally 50 percent lower each preceding night after maximum but these rates are two to three times more than was seen during the expected maximum on the night of August 12/13. Peter Jenniskens, using his CAMS network of cameras, has calculated the time of maximum to be 08:14 Universal Time on August 14th. He believes that this outburst may be related to the lesser enhancements that occurred in 2018 an 2019. William J. Cooke, Head of the NASA Meteoroid Environments Office, stated ” We currently think this outburst was caused by very old material ejected from Comet Swift-Tuttle – way before 0 AD. This would also explain why no one predicted it, given that the Perseid stream models only go back a couple of thousands of years.”

References: https://www.meteornews.net/2021/08/14/strong-outburst-perseids-on-august-14-2021-06-09-ut/

Heather M. Wendelboe: Personal Communication

Michael Hankey: Personal Communication

William J. Cooke: Personal Communication via Michael Hankey

Pierre Martin: Personal Communication

Tags: 2021 Perseid Outburst August 14th Perseid Outburst Perseid Meteor Outburst Perseid Meteor Shower Perseid Outburst

Robert Lunsford

Bob has been interested in the stars as far back as he can recall His first experience with meteors was a biggie, the 1966 Leonid shower. In 1980, a major awaking occurred. He received a sample copy of Meteor News. He was amazed to learn there was a group actually devoted strictly to meteor observing! He joined the group also started to view some of the minor showers list among the pages of Meteor News. Lastly, he was contracted by Springer Publishing in 2007 to write a book on observing meteors. The book is now available and hopefully will be a useful guide to all interested in the enjoyable field of meteor observing.