Sorry about using the tabloid type headline to get you to read my column, but I couldn't resist.

Actually the Earth, in orbit around the sun and traveling at well over 67,000 mph, is running into a debris trail left behind by a comet.

The cosmic litterbug that left this mess is the comet Swift Tuttle that last visited our part of the solar system in 1992.

Comets are basically dirty snow balls that partially melt and leave behind trails of dust and very small debris no bigger than pebbles in their wake.

When the Earth runs into these debris trails, we have a meteor shower as some of this debris crashes and burns in our atmosphere about 50 to 60 miles up.

The meteor shower that peaks Tuesday morning is an annual affair called the Perseids. It's one of the best showers of the year and certainly the most weather friendly meteor shower.

You can camp out all night under the stars, armed with mosquito repellant of course, and catch a great show, especially after midnight when you're on the side of the Earth that's heading into the Swift Tuttle Comet debris.

Before midnight you're facing the other way in space, but after midnight the Earth will have rotated into the right direction. It's just like taking a drive after dark in the countryside. You're going to get more smashed bugs on your front windshield than on your rear window.

The only trouble with seeing the Perseids peak Tuesday morning, besides cloudy skies, will be a near full moon that will really whitewash the sky at first.

But the good news is that the moon will set a little after 1:30 a.m., leaving the rest of the morning in prime shape for meteor shower watching.

You'll actually see the most meteors later in the morning, anyway. Prime time is usually between 2 a.m. to 5 a.m.

If you can, try to view the shower from out in the boonies, away from city lights. But even in areas with limited dark skies you may see as many as 50 to 60 meteors an hour during the early morning prime time, even more if you're watching in super dark skies.

The best way to watch the Perseids is to lie back on a blanket on the ground or a reclining lawn chair and roll your eyes all around the sky, slightly favoring the high northeastern sky.

This meteor shower is called the Perseids because the meteors seem to emanate from the general direction of the constellation Perseus the Hero, which is in the high northeast sky from about 2 a.m. onward.

You can get a sky chart to see exactly where to locate Perseus, but it's not all that important.

Again, you want to roll your eyes all around the heavens, because if you restrict your gaze to just the area around Perseus, you're bound to miss some meteors. They emanate from Perseus, but they travel throughout the celestial dome.

The more people you can have with you, the better. See how many you can spot as a group. All you need are your naked eyes (with eye glasses if necessary). Binoculars or a telescope are no good for meteor showers because they can only pick up small areas of the sky at any one time.

The dust particle to pebble size ammunition from this meteor shower burns over your head about 50 to 60 miles high, but most of the light you're seeing is not because of combustion. That makes perfect sense. How could a tiny little speck burning up that high produce such a bright light?

The overwhelming light produced as these meteors streak into our atmosphere at over 130,000 miles a second, much faster than a bullet shot out of a gun, is because of photo chemical reactions in our atmosphere. These particles are ripping through their respective columns of air so fast that the atoms and molecules in those columns are temporarily destabilized, producing the light that we see.

If you remember your high school physics, this is called ionization. Meteors can be all different colors, but because of the nitrogen and oxygen in our atmosphere the color produced by ionization is usually bluish or greenish.

Pray for clear skies and enjoy the peak of the Perseid shower Tuesday morning. It's worth losing sleep over!

By the way, getting back to my tabloid headline this week, it was thought that the next time comet Swift Tuttle comes back toward the sun in 2126, that it may collide with the Earth!

Maybe you remember those headlines in the early '90s.

Fortunately astronomers looked more closely at the comet's orbit and decided that it won't even come close.

What a relief. Go ahead and make your plans for 2126. I'll only be 170! I hope my retirement savings hold out!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com