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Throughout the year, as the Earth revolves around the sun, it flows through cosmic debris flows. The resulting meteor showers can illuminate the night sky from dawn to dawn and, if you are lucky, you may be able to see.
The next shower you may be able to see is called the Lyrids. Active from 16 to 28 April, the show culminates from Sunday evening to Monday morning or from 21 to 22 April. The moon could hinder the visualization of the summit this year.
There are documents of ancient Chinese astronomers discovering these bursts of light more than 2,700 years ago. They travel the sky at a speed of about 107,000 miles an hour and explode about 55 miles into the planet's atmosphere. The Lyrids shower comes from comet Thatcher, who travels around the sun every 415 years or so. His last trip dates back to 1861 and his next rendezvous near the sun will be in 2276.
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Where do the meteor showers come from?
If you notice a meteor shower, what you usually see is the remains of an icy comet that crash into the Earth's atmosphere. Comets are a bit like dirty snowballs: when they travel in the solar system, they leave behind a dusty trail of rocks and ice that remain long in space. When the Earth crosses these cascades of comet waste, debris – which can be as small as grains of sand – pierce the sky at such a speed that they burst, creating a heavenly fireworks fire.
General rule with meteor showers: you never watch the Earth crumble in the remains of the most recent orbit of a comet. Instead, the hot bits come from previous passes. For example, during the Perseid meteor shower, you see meteors ejected when the parent comet, the Swift-Tuttle comet, was visited in 1862 or earlier, but not during its last visit in 1992.
This is because it takes time for the debris in a comet's orbit to slip into a position where they intersect with the orbit of the Earth, according to Bill Cooke, astronomer of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.
How to watch
The best way to see a meteor shower is to get to a place with an unobstructed view of the night sky. Ideally, it would be somewhere with a dark sky, far away from city lights and traffic. To maximize your chances of catching the show, look for a spot offering a wide and unobstructed view.
Pieces of meteor shower are visible for a while, but they reach their maximum visible from dusk to dawn a few days. It is at this time that the orbit of the Earth crosses the thickest part of the cosmic flow. The meteor showers can vary during peak hours, some reaching their maximum maximum for only a few hours, others for several nights. The showers tend to be most visible after midnight and before dawn.
It is best to use your naked eye to spot a meteor shower. Binoculars or telescopes tend to limit your field of vision. You may need to spend about half an hour in the dark to let your eyes get used to the reduced light. Astronomers should be aware that moonlight and weather can mask shows. But if that happens, there are usually meteorological data streams like those hosted by NASA and by Slooh.
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