The next week is the best time of the year to go looking for shooting stars (also called meteors). A shooting star is not actually a star at all, but a bit of dust. As that dust hits the Earth's atmosphere, it burns brightly for just a fleeting moment, and we see it as a streak of light across the night-sky.

Next week is the best time of the year to look because the Earth just so happens to be going through the part of the solar-system that Comet Swift-Tuttle went through back in December, 1992. And that comet left lots of dust behind.

The Earth drives through this dust like a car driving through falling snow. So we get the best view of the meteors when we are on the 'front' of the Earth - that's in the early morning. So the best time to see meteors this year is early morning on the Tuesday 12 August, when the Earth is at the heart of the stream of dust. Make sure you wait for the Moon to set as well, and get as far away from light pollution as possible - such light can drown out the view of all but the brightest meteors.

Comet Swift-Tuttle's tail was quite wide, so we should see a larger number of meteors than usual for the next week. Click here to see the orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle around our solar system.