You’ve probably caught wind that the Perseid meteor shower will be visible by the naked eye tonight and tomorrow, meaning we’ll see glittering shooting stars fling themselves across the night sky.

After all, it seems that we’re all fascinated with the movements of the planets right now, with everyone from your WhatsApp group to your elder relatives being clued up on the latest comet or new moon.

Recently we’ve seen excitement around the comet Neowise, but we think this otherworldly display is going to be even more beautiful. The Perseid meteor shower is actually an annual occurrence, coming into view between mid-July and August.

The phenomenon is created by Comet Swift-Tuttle, which years ago left a trail of debris as it orbited around the sun. Every year as we go through this patch of rubble on our way around the sun, we’re able to see pieces of space dust come into our atmosphere, roughly 80 miles up in the air, they burn and glow to give what we on earth know as shooting stars.

Perseid meteor shower: how to see hundreds of shooting stars tonight