The annual Perseid meteor shower peaked on August 11 and 12 as Earth passed through a stream of debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. During the Perseids, as many as 100 meteors each hour enter Earth's atmosphere at 100,000 mph and then burn up at a safe distance. Stargazers with a clear view of the night sky captured beautiful pictures from the celestial show.
A Perseid fireball is visible from the McDonald Observatory in west Texas.
A meteor streaks over the North Star in the California skies on Monday, August 12, 2013.
Los Angeles photographers point their cameras at the stars during the Perseid meteor shower.
An Aerospace photographer uses his iPhone to take photos of the fireballs on Monday, August 12, 2013.
Stargazers gather in Castaic Lake, California, to watch the Perseid meteor shower in the pre-dawn hours on Monday, August, 12, 2013.
A meteor streaks over Castaic Lake, California, during the early morning.
A streak appears in the sky above a roadside billboard of a Spanish fighting bull in central Spain during the early hours of Monday, Aug. 12, 2013.
A meteor sparks while entering the Earth's atmosphere behind an olive tree in Central Greece on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013.
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