Who discovered the link between the Perseid meteor shower and Comet Swift–Tuttle in 1866?

Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered the link between the Perseid meteor shower and Comet Swift–Tuttle in 1866.

Schiaparelli compared the orbit of the Perseid meteor stream with the orbit of Comet Swift–Tuttle after the comet’s 1862 perihelion passage. The close match showed that meteors could be debris released by a comet rather than unrelated objects appearing randomly.

His conclusion was important because it provided the physical explanation for an annual meteor shower. Earth crosses the stream of dust and small particles left along the comet’s orbit, and those particles enter the atmosphere at high speed.

Schiaparelli’s work also helped establish a general scientific relationship between comets and meteor showers. The Perseids became one of the classic examples of a comet-produced meteor stream.