meteor showers

Take a minute to look up at the stars this weekend, because two very, very special things are supposedly happening there. One is the annual observance of one of Earth's oldest-known meteor showers. The other is the apocalypse. From late Saturday (April 21) to early Sunday (April 22), stargazers in the ...

On Sunday we'll all hear a lot about the importance of recycling, planting trees, and saving energy by turning out the lights. It can be hard to appreciate the way enormous environmental problems actually impact our lives, but this year there's a perfect opportunity: just try star gazing. This weekend, the Lyrid ...

Sky-watchers will get a chance to witness one of the oldest known annual meteor showers this weekend—and conditions promise to be ideal for viewing the shooting stars. Northern Hemisphere skies will light up as the Lyrid meteor shower peaks late on April 21 and into the very early hours of April 22.

The moon will be out of the way and will have set before the Lyrids kick up, so, depending on weather conditions in Georgia, this show should be a winner. Check the forecast from the National Weather Service. All meteor showers occur when the Earth crosses the path of a comet and collide with the trail of ...

Skywatchers are in for a double treat with a pair of meteor showers happening within two weeks of each other. First up is the Lyrids meteor shower, which peaks Sunday into Monday. The Lyrids produce about 15 to 20 meteors per hour. You won't be able to spot every meteor, however, especially if you live ...

All meteor showers occur when the Earth crosses the path of a comet and collide with the trail of comet debris, making their occurrence predictable. They leave bright streaks — called shooting stars. Lyrid meteors are fast, but not as fast as the Leonids, which come in November, Cooke told Space.com.

One of the oldest meteor showers in existence, Lyrid meteors blaze through the sky as our planet shifts through the leftover dust in the solar system from Comet Thatcher, which was discovered in 1861. When the comet's debris crashes through the Earth's atmosphere, it evaporates and transforms into a ...

The Lyrid Meteor Shower will light up the nighttime sky later this month, treating stargazers around the world to a spectacular sight. Considered to be the oldest known meteor shower, the Lyrid Meteor Shower was named after Lyra, a small constellation that lies in the northern sky from which the meteors ...

The annual Lyrid meteor shower, named after the constellation Lyra, is just around the corner and expected to peak on April 22. It's the second meteor shower of 2018. » RELATED: Mark your calendar for these 2018 meteor showers ...

The Lyrid meteors typically begin to crisscross the skies from around April 16 until April 25. But stargazers are most looking forward to the meteor shower's peak which is will erupt this year around April 22 and April 23. Meteor showers typically peak in the pre-dawn hours when the night skies are at their ...

Meteor Showers 101 Meteor showers bring interplanetary debris, ranging from pebbles to boulders, into Earth's atmosphere. Find out how these dazzling displays come about. The Lyrids are also known to have surprise outbursts, such as the one in 1982 that saw as many as 250 meteors appear in a single ...

Meteor showers and the “shooting stars” they bring may be beautiful, but the most impressive displays only occur about 10 times a year. Now a Japanese startup that bills itself as the world's first “space entertainment” company says it wants to turn shooting stars from a once-in-awhile thing to something you ...

While this might seem like harmless entertainment for those that can afford it, some experts are warning that these artificial meteor showers could potentially damage other satellites in orbit. Right now, the company hopes to mitigate that risk by keeping their satellites in a much lower orbit than most other ...

There are a bunch of meteor showers in April, but none are that great. Many of them stretch out over periods of time, with a maximum rate of only a couple per hour. Some showers, such as the Virginids series, run from January until May, but I'll get to those later. The two April showers that have the biggest ...

But beware, dust storms, meteor showers, and all other sorts of hazards await the citizens of the new Mars, and you need to manage every aspect of the colony to keep them happy, sane, and ultimately, alive. I've been playing Surviving Mars for the past few days and am finding it to be utterly engrossing so far, as I battle my ...

The larger, horizontally oriented “Radiation Exploration” pictures are based on fields of sea-blue over which burst the equivalent of cosmic fireworks: lightning bolts, planetary fireballs and meteor showers of individual strokes. It's a chaos that doesn't feel chaotic. It's a spontaneously choreographed and ...

“I've seen meteors and meteor showers in the atmosphere before. They had a big white flash and looked like sparklers going off. “But I've never seen one that big or that colour before.” He believed it was a meteor, but also thought it could have been space junk. What is this object above the Newcastle sky?

Space.com says that meteor showers or shooting stars occur when particles from asteroids or comets enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up. But what's the difference between a shooting star and a fireball? Simple: fireballs are bigger. When larger meteors enter the atmosphere and break apart, it's a much ...

Last month was one of those rare February months without a full moon. Since it takes 29 days to go from full moon to full moon and February is only 28 days long... So, here in 2018, January had a full moon on the 31st and tonight, March 1st, is 29 days later. Hence no full moon in February. However, this ...

An incredible super blue blood moon - a phenomenon which hadn't happened for more than 150 years - lit up the night sky last week as many people across the world watched in awe. Although there won't be another super blue blood moon again any time soon, there are still plenty of dazzling celestial ...

This shower isn't very spectacular, but it is notable for being visible primarily in the Southern hemisphere. While the peak will be around the 7th of May there will be a week of activity, as it is with most meteor showers. It is named for the Aquarius constellation and the falling stars will be focused around it.

To watch any of these meteor showers, you need to get far from the city. Find an open area where you can see to the horizon and, most importantly, where the sky is dark. The Dark Sky Finder app is a useful tool to help you find a spot to set up shop. It's also recommended you give yourself about 30 minutes ...

The resulting meteor showers can light up night skies from dusk to dawn, and if you're lucky you might be able to catch one. If you spot a meteor shower, what you're really seeing is the leftovers of icy comets crashing into Earth's atmosphere. Comets are sort of like dirty snowballs: As they travel through the ...

More than a dozen times each year, we experience a strong pulse of "shooting stars" from an annual meteor shower. Sky & Telescope predicts that the two best meteor showers in 2018 will be the Perseids in mid-August and the Geminids in mid-December. Geminid meteor crosses Orion. Expect similar ...

While November is generally a cold time to do astronomy, it's still worth going outside. This month, skywatchers will be treated to three meteor showers, and the best part is you need no equipment to see the displays, except something warm to wear. Here are the three showers to look for in the Northern ...

Between late September and early January every year, Earth's orbit carries us through a series of debris fields left by passing comets, producing meteor showers for skywatchers to enjoy. It all kicks off this weekend with the peak of the Orionid meteor shower. Every shower has unique characteristics ...

A general rule of thumb with meteor showers: You are never watching the Earth cross into remnants from a comet's most recent orbit. Instead, the burning bits come from the previous pass. For example, during the Perseid meteor shower you are seeing meteors ejected from when its parent comet, Comet Swift-Tuttle, visited ...

This Sunday is Earth Day but a celestial attraction at may steal the show. The Lyrid meteor shower will peak Saturday, NASA says online, and luckily for residents of southeast Michigan, National Weather Service meteorologist Sara Pampreen says the skies will clear out after midnight tonight and ...

A space rock slammed into Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday night (March 7), putting on a brief but brilliant sky show, according to media reports. The fireball and associated boom were caused by an object about the size of a minivan. It streaked over Washington and eventually ...

(Full disclosure: I had no idea certain meteor showers were annual. Clouds of debris are suspended in space right in our orbit, so we crash through them around the same time every year. Clearly freshman-year astronomy didn't do the trick — I need a luxury skin serum to drive the point home.) "Night is ...

Not to freak you out or anything, but Earth appears to quite literally be going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment. That's at least one way you might describe the fact that a whopping 17 large asteroids have been spotted passing relatively close by our planet in 2018 alone. In fact, the most recent ...

Monday, February 26, 2018, 5:53 PM - A blue moon, two meteor showers and Jupiter at its biggest and brightest. Here's what to watch for in the night sky in Spring of 2018! With the weather warming up as we head into spring, there are a few interesting things to check out in the night sky. Quick List. • March 30-31 - 2018's ...

March is a poor month for meteor showers. We have 10 of them, all weak. Remember, the days listed are peak time, and they have a few days before and after these times that they may also have some stragglers. The Rho Leonids peak March 1-4. Pi Virginids pea March 3-9 at two to five per hour.