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The second half of July and the early days of August are the perfect time to get outside and look at the night sky.

That’s when three of the year’s best meteor showers peak, each with their own special idiosyncrasies. For the Northern Hemisphere, the balmy temperatures of summer will make meteor-spotting the perfect activity, while in the south, longer nights prolong the times for which meteors will be visible.

From around July 12, the Alpha Capricornids will be visible in northern and southern skies, peaking on July 29 to 30. The famous and beloved Perseids appear around July 17, peaking on August 12 to 13, primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. And finally, the Southern Delta Aquariids will start on July 18, with a peak on July 29 to 30.

You won’t need any special equipment, but the Southern Delta Aquariids are on the fainter side, so binoculars may enhance your viewing experience.

Related: Meteor-Like ‘Shooting Stars’ Discovered in The Sun’s Atmosphere

Multiple meteor showers appear in Earth’s skies every year. They occur when our planet, traveling around the Sun, passes through the cloud of debris left behind by an asteroid or comet.

As these objects orbit the Sun, they shed material that remains on Earth’s orbital path, just waiting for its moment.

When Earth moves into the cloud, pieces of that leftover comet-or-asteroid detritus smack into Earth’s atmosphere, burning as they fall due to the conditions of atmospheric entry, creating a glowing trail or fireball that can be seen with the naked eye.

The Alpha Capricornids are the product of a short-period comet named 169/NEAT that orbits the Sun once every 4.2 years. Their radiant point, or place in the sky from which they appear to originate, is in the constellation of Capricorn.

This meteor shower is not particularly numerous; at its peak, it only produces about five meteors per hour. But what meteors! They shine exceptionally brightly, even in skies aglow with light pollution, making them one of the more popular meteor showers to watch for.

This year, the Alpha Capricornids’ peak occurs when the Moon is in its low-illumination waxing crescent phase, which will also increase their visibility. The best time to view will be in the evening, starting around 10:00 pm your local time.

The Perseids, by contrast, are prolific. They originate from Comet Swift-Tuttle, a short-period comet that orbits the Sun every 133 years, and have a radiant near the constellations of Perseus, Cassiopeia, and Camelopardalis.

At their peak, you can expect to see 50 to 75 meteors per hour under dark sky conditions.

This year, that may be complicated by the waxing gibbous Moon that appears in the sky at the same time, but they should be active for the entire month of August, presenting ample viewing opportunities.

The best time for viewing is in the early morning, between midnight and dawn.

Finally, the Southern Delta Aquariids are probably from the short-period comet 96P/Macholz, which orbits the Sun once every 5.27 years, with a radiant point in the constellation Aquarius.

This meteor shower produces 20 to 25 meteors per hour in its 48-hour peak window, but they are pretty faint, and don’t leave strong trails. However, this year the peak occurs during the waxing crescent Moon that sets before the radiation is high, which presents pretty optimal viewing conditions, especially between midnight and dawn.

This shower could also have a surprise in store. On two occasions – 1977 and 2003 – the Southern Delta Aquariids put on a much stronger show than usual, so it’s possible that they may pull out all the stops this year, too.

If you want to get out there and spot some fireballs, your best bet is to download a sky-watching app such as Star Walk and keep your eye out for when each constellation is due to rise. And don’t forget to pack all the creature comforts – blankets, snacks, and whatever equipment you might want to capture the moment on film.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe performed the closest-ever pass by the Sun late last year, and NASA has just released the remarkable images from the historic fly-by.

The Solar Probe, which launched in 2018 to study the Sun’s outer corona, passed just 3.8 million miles from the Sun’s surface, orbiting the star from inside its atmosphere. The new images, taken closer to the Sun than any artificial object has ever been before, provide scientists with valuable data required to study the Sun’s influence on Earth and the rest of the solar system.

“Parker Solar Probe has once again transported us into the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star,” says Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are witnessing where space weather threats to Earth begin, with our eyes, not just with models. This new data will help us vastly improve our space weather predictions to ensure the safety of our astronauts and the protection of our technology here on Earth and throughout the solar system.”

The probe made its historic journey near the Sun on Christmas Eve last year and captured its incredible images using an array of instruments, including the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe, also known as WISPR.

The images WISPR captured show the Sun’s corona and solar wind, which is a constant and mysterious stream of charged particles that travel through the solar system. The solar wind propels materials and magnetic forces into the solar system, and is responsible not only for the beautiful auroras in Earth’s atmosphere, but also for disrupting power grids and communications systems when the solar wind is especially potent.

“The WISPR images give scientists a closer look at what happens to the solar wind shortly after it is released from the corona. The images show the important boundary where the Sun’s magnetic field direction switches from northward to southward, called the heliospheric current sheet,” NASA explains.

The new images also captured multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) colliding — an essential component of space weather — for the first time ever in high-resolution detail.

“In these images, we’re seeing the CMEs basically piling up on top of one another,” explains Angelos Vourlidas, the WISPR instrument scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. This lab designed, built, and operates the Parker Solar Probe.

“We’re using this to figure out how the CMEs merge together, which can be important for space weather,” Vourlidas continues.

Scientists note that when CMEs collide, their trajectory and strength can be significantly altered. Collisions among CMEs can pose a significant threat to astronauts in space and Earth-based technologies.

The Parker Solar Probe has played a crucial role in enhancing humanity’s understanding of the Sun and the solar wind. When the spacecraft got within 26.5 million miles of the Sun in October 2018, three months after launching, it became the closest artificial object to the Sun. It has since reached significantly closer distances, including the record-breaking approach on December 24, 2024. During regular passes by the Sun, the probe has provided new details about the Sun’s magnetic fields, coronal boundary, and its surface.

While the probe has helped solve many mysteries, there are still many unknowns for scientists to untangle, including precisely how solar wind is generated and how it escapes the Sun’s immense gravitational forces.

“Understanding this continuous flow of particles, particularly the slow solar wind, is a major challenge, especially given the diversity in the properties of these streams — but with Parker Solar Probe, we’re closer than ever to uncovering their origins and how they evolve,” says Nour Rawafi, the Parker Solar Probe’s project scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

The Parker Solar Probe’s next pass is scheduled for September 15, 2025, and scientists are eager to see what new data the spacecraft will collect during this time.

Image credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Lab. Additional video credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng