The annual Perseid meteor shower happens when Earth moves through the debris trail left by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The event reached its peak overnight, coinciding with a new moon that created perfect conditions for sky-watchers because there was no moonlight to disrupt the view. Witness the shooting stars below.
In the Negev Desert near Mitzpe Ramon, Israel, Perseid meteors streaked across the sky early on Thursday. At the Visnjan Observatory in Croatia on Wednesday evening, people observed a meteor streaking through the sky. In North Macedonia near Kratovo, a meteor streaked across the night sky above the Stone Dolls of Kuklica early Thursday. On Mount Avala near Belgrade, Serbia, people gathered around the Monument to the Unknown Hero to witness the Perseid meteor shower. Over the megalithic stone walls of the ancient Illyrian city of Daorson near Stolac in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina, a meteor streaked across the night sky. In Jacobsdorf, Germany, a meteor with a green tail and the streaks of two satellites were visible during the Perseid meteor shower on Wednesday. Lastly, a Perseid meteor streaked across the night sky behind St. Mark’s Tower, a 17th-century coastal fortification near the village of Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq in Malta.