On the warm summer nights in the coming weeks, shooting stars will once again streak across the sky.

Although you always need a little patience, with a bit of luck your wait will be rewarded with the flash of a bright shooting star.

Shooting stars are tiny particles of cosmic dust that burn up as they hurtle through the Earth's atmosphere. They are particularly numerous in mid-August, when the Earth passes through the concentrated dust trail of an old comet.

Because all of these shooting stars appear to come from the same dust trail in the constellation Perseus, this swarm is called the Perseids. In addition to the Perseids, many other shooting stars can also be seen during these nights.

Therefore, it is almost always worthwhile to look up at the stars when the sky is clear.