For the 2026 Perseid meteor shower, which comet supplies the debris that creates it?

The 2026 Perseid meteor shower is produced by debris from Comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle.

As the comet travels around the Sun, it sheds dust and rocky grains. Earth crosses this broad debris stream every year in July and August. When particles strike the upper atmosphere at high speed, they heat the surrounding air and produce the bright streaks called Perseid meteors.

Swift–Tuttle is a periodic comet independently discovered by Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle in 1862. Its orbit takes roughly 133 years, so the comet itself is not near Earth every year. The annual shower is caused by older material spread along its orbit, not by the comet making a yearly close approach.

The name 109P/Swift–Tuttle combines the comet’s official periodic-comet number with its discoverers’ surnames. It is sometimes confused with Halley’s Comet because both are famous periodic comets, but Halley produces the Eta Aquariid and Orionid meteor showers instead.