Perseid meteor trail. Trail of a Perseid meteor against a starry sky at dusk. The Perseids are meteors seen around 12 August each year, and which appear to originate from the direction of the constellation Perseus. These meteors are small dust particles from a dust belt known as the meteor stream. As the Earth passes through the stream, a large number of dust particles enter the atmosphere. Travelling at 35- 90 km/s the meteors encounter air resistance which makes them incandescent, producing a bright trail. At its peak, the Perseid shower has about one meteor per minute. Photograph taken in Finland.