One of the year’s brightest and most popular meteor showers peaks this week, offering a chance to see shooting stars cross a particularly dark sky, thanks to the new moon. The Perseid meteor shower has been underway since mid-July, but is expected to peak overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. Under ideal conditions — clear weather and dark skies — the Perseids can produce as many as 100 shooting stars per hour. Though the highest rate comes during the shower’s peak, shooting stars should continue to be visible over the next two weeks. The Perseid meteor shower occurs when Earth passes through a cloud of dust particles and debris left over from a comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862.