Number 136 (Story #2), July 9, 1993 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein THE ANNUAL PERSEID METEOR SHOWER will be particularly intense this year because Comet Swift-Tuttle, the parent comet whose tail leaves behind particles that can potentially rain down on Earth each August, reached its closest approach to the Sun during its 130-year orbit last fall, at which time the Sun helped to boil off a new supply of candidate meteoroids. Peaking on August 11-12, the shower will consist of tiny objects striking our atmosphere at velocities up to 72 km/sec (160,000 mph). Their visible streaks (best viewed after midnight) will appear to be coming from a single point in the sky (the "radiant"), but actually the shower objects approach the atmosphere---where they disintegrate at altitudes of about 60 or 70 miles---along parallel paths. (Astronomy, August 1993.)