How fast do Perseid meteors travel when they enter Earth’s atmosphere?

Perseid meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere at about 59 kilometres per second.

That speed is roughly 212,000 kilometres per hour. A Perseid’s visible flash begins when a small piece of cometary debris encounters atmospheric molecules at enormous velocity. The particle compresses and heats the air around it, while material on and around the grain vaporizes and glows.

A meteor is the streak of light, not the space particle itself. Before atmospheric entry, the object is called a meteoroid. If any surviving fragment reaches the ground, it is called a meteorite. Most Perseid particles are tiny and disintegrate high above Earth, so the shower normally produces light trails rather than recoverable rocks.

The speed helps explain why Perseids can be bright and leave persistent-looking trains. It also explains why a telescope is unnecessary: meteors move rapidly across a wide field of sky. The quoted speed is an approximate shower characteristic, not an identical value for every particle, because observed atmospheric speed depends on orbital geometry and measurement conditions.