The most-watched meteor shower of the year is coming back late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, and this year, stargazers may be treated to even more fiery streaks of light zooming across the night sky.

Under the right conditions, observers away from city light pollution are sometimes able to see an average of one and sometimes two Perseid meteors per minute, said Patrick Wiggins, NASA solar system ambassador to Utah.

"But this year," he said, "NASA is predicting the possibility of an enhanced shower Wednesday morning between 2 and 3 a.m."

The more frequent meteor sightings could happen if the Earth passes through what astronomers suspect to be a particularly rich pocket of meteor-producing particles cast off by the shower's parent comet nearly 400 years ago in 1610.

Most meteor shower particles are thought to be debris left behind by comets. The Perseids' parent comet, Swift-Tuttle, was last closest to the Earth late in the last century and will not return until early next century, Wiggins said.

Some Perseid meteors also may be seen in the dark hours just before and after Aug. 12, but Wednesday morning will be the best time because the Earth will be centered in, and Utah will be facing directly into, the meteoroid swarm.

The weather looks like it will cooperate, with a dry, high-pressure system settling into the area Tuesday through Wednesday, which should lead to clear to only partly cloudy skies that night, said Monica Traphagan, National Weather Service meteorologist.

"So far, it's looking good," she said.

This shower is called the Perseids because they appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus. This shower is one of the fastest moving, with meteors ripping into the atmosphere at 60 kilometers per second. At that rate, Wiggins notes, a driver could get from Salt Lake City to St. George in eight seconds.

Most meteors, usually called shooting or falling stars, are actually tiny bits of rock, often no bigger than a grain of sand, that burn up when they hit the Earth's atmosphere and the resultant ash falls harmlessly to the ground. Scientists believe the Earth picks up 100 tons or more of meteoric material each day.

Viewers should not use binoculars or telescopes because it limits the view of the sky too much.

"A lawn chair, the naked eye, and maybe a few munchies, are the best things for viewing meteor showers," Wiggins said.

smcfarland@sltrib.com