OUT OF THIS WORLD | What's Up In Space - a weekly look at the biggest news coming down to Earth from space Find Your Forecast Scott Sutherland Meteorologist/Science Writer Thursday, August 10, 2017, 11:37 - The peak of the Perseid meteor shower is brightening our night skies this weekend, but this year, there's some good news and there's some bad news. What and when? First off, the Perseid meteor shower , or simply 'the Perseids', is one of the best meteor showers of the year. Not only does it deliver up to 100 meteors per hour, at least under ideal conditions, but it has the highest number of bright fireball meteors of any meteor shower of the year. A fireball meteor is one that flashes at least as bright as the planet Venus is in our night sky (or enough to be visible despite typical levels of light pollution). The Perseids are caused when Earth passes through a stream of icy, rocky debris left behind by a comet known as 109P/Swift–Tuttle. The meteoroids...