This weekend and into Monday, Aug. 12, the skies above the Northern Hemisphere will be peppered with little bits of space debris that create the annual Perseid meteor shower. There are also a lot of interesting bits of information associated with the Perseids and its parent comet, Swift-Tuttle.

Here are 10 cool facts you can use to impress friends and family late at night or early in the morning while watching for shooting stars:

Perseid meteoroids (which is what they're called while in space) move more quickly than a WorldCom executive running from an auditor. They enter Earth's atmosphere (and are then called meteors) at roughly 133,200 mph (60 kilometers per second) relative to the planet. Most are the size of sand grains; a few are as big as peas or marbles. Almost none hit the ground, but if one does, it's called a meteorite.

You might have known all this, but I'll bet the next two facts will surprise you ...