In the 2026 Perseid animation described on Wikipedia, the meteoroid’s recombination glow remains visible for about 0.7 seconds.
A Perseid meteoroid becomes luminous as it plunges into Earth’s upper atmosphere at very high speed. The bright head marks the moving particle and the surrounding atmospheric effects can continue after the particle has passed, creating a glowing trail.
The recombination glow comes from ionized atmospheric material returning toward a less-ionized state. This is different from the cometary dust particle itself: the meteoroid is the incoming solid fragment, while the visible meteor is the atmospheric light phenomenon it produces.
The animation uses a Perseid particle about 1 centimeter in size entering the atmosphere in slow motion. The short real-time duration illustrates why meteor trails are fleeting even though long-exposure photographs can make them appear persistent.