A Major Meteor Shower Begins This Week: When To See It At Its Best

Forbes

19-04-2025

The Lyrids, the first meteor shower since January and one of the oldest known is set to begin on Thursday, April 17, 2025, though the peak in the early hours of Tuesday, April 22. During that peak, about 18 'shooting stars,' some very bright fireballs, are expected each hour.
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After a few months of little-to-no meteor activity, everything changes in spring in the Northern Hemisphere with the Lyrid meteor shower, famous for bright 'fireball' shooting stars. Fireballs are defined as meteors about the same brightness as Venus.
Occurring April 17-26 this year, the Lyrids typically produce good rates of bright meteors for three nights centered on the maximum, according to the American Meteor Society.
That makes Monday, April 21, Tuesday, April 22 and Wednesday, April 23, good nights. However, clear and dark skies are essential, so the early hours after midnight — when any location on Earth is the darkest — is the best time to look up.
Lyrids are best seen from the Northern Hemisphere because they appear to emanate from the constellation Lyra, which is centered upon the bright star Vega. It's rising in the northeastern night sky after dark.
The Lyrid meteor shower is the product of dust and debris left in the inner solar system by long-period comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which takes 422 years to orbit the sun. It last looped around our star in 1861 and won't return until 2283. 'It's obscure comet that nobody really knows much about because it spends most of its time far away, where we can't even see it with even our most powerful telescopes,' said Dr. Nick Moskovitz at Lowell Observatory, in an interview.
Meteors are caused by small particles of rock and dust from a comet entering Earth's atmosphere and burning up, releasing energy as photons of light. According to NASA, they come from leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids. 'Comet Thatcher has a wide range of little particles that fall off its surface, from very small fine grain stuff, like talcum powder, to much larger particles like marbles, even apples, oranges and grapefruits,' said Moskovitz. 'That means a wide range of brightnesses — and some of the Lyrid meteors can be spectacular fireball meteors that leave what we call a persistent train in the atmosphere.' Fireballs result from really big meteors exciting atoms in the Earth's atmosphere that get ionized. 'That ionized trail of particles can persist for a long time after the meteor comes in,' said Moskovitz.
The best way to watch a meteor shower is to treat it as a stargazing session. Be outside in the pre-dawn hours on the peak night and watch the skies. Don't look at your smartphone — its bright white light will kill your night vision and make the 'shooting stars' much harder to see. Keep artificial lights — including street and security lights — out of your vision. Although the 'shooting stars' will appear to have traveled from close to Vega, meteor showers are all-sky events, so you can look anywhere in the night sky.
Hot on the heels of the Lyrids will come the Eta Aquariids, a meteor shower that will run from April 19 through May 28, peaking in the early hours of Monday, May 5. About 40-60 'shooting stars' are expected per hour. The Eta Aquariids are the product of Halley's Comet, the most famous comet. This short-period comet last visited the inner solar system in 1986 and is next due in 2061. This meteor shower is best seen in the Southern Hemisphere since its radiant point is the constellation Aquarius, which is low in the southeast as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.