Star gazers enjoyed themselves last night as the sky was host to the annual Perseid meteor shower, known as the Tears of St Lawrence.

The slow exposure picture above, taken by Piero Timpano, shows the spectacular scene witnessed from Selmun.

Well over 100 people also enjoyed the spectacle from l-Ahrax in Mellieha, where officials of the Astronomical Society were on hand to explain the phenomenon and provide telescopes.

The Perseid meteoroids are tiny, sand-to pea-size bits of rocky debris that were shed long ago by Comet Swift-Tuttle. This comet, like others, is slowly disintegrating as it orbits the sun.

Over the centuries, its crumbly remains have spread all along its 130-year orbit to form a sparse “river of rubble” hundreds of millions of kilometres long.

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