Lyrid meteor shower 2025: Where and when to view
Lyrid meteor shower 2025: Where and when to view
Sky watchers will be treated to something special as the Lyrids meteor shower reaches its peak.
The Lyrids are expected to peak April 21 and April 22, according to NASA. On those nights, the moon will be at 40% brightness, which may interfere with viewing, according to the American Meteor Society. It may be best to view the meteor shower on the evening of April 21 – just before the waning crescent moon rises.
In the best conditions, the Lyrids average 10 to 15 meteors an hour, but it can bombard the sky with up to 100, according to NASA.
Where to view in the night sky
Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them.
The American Meteor Society describes the Lyrids as a "medium-strength shower." Though the Lyrids bring fast and bright meteors, they're not as plentiful as showers like the Perseids in August, according to NASA.
"Lyrids don't tend to leave long, glowing dust trains behind them as they streak through the Earth's atmosphere, but they can produce the occasional bright flash called a fireball," NASA says.
Parent comet of Lyrid meteor shower
Lyrids are pieces of debris from Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. In mid-April each year, the Earth runs into the stream of debris from the comet, which causes the meteor shower.
First sightings of the Lyrids
The first recorded sighting of a Lyrid meteor shower goes back to 687 B.C. in China. Observers there said the Lyrids were "falling like rain."
Earthsky said that in 1982, American observers saw an outburst of nearly 100 Lyrid meteors an hour. Japanese observers saw about 100 meteors an hour in 1945, and Greek observers saw that number in 1922.
What are meteors made of?
Meteors are space rocks that are as small as a grain of sand or small rock. As they enter Earth's atmosphere, they create a tail of debris as they disintegrate. Meteorites that have made their way to the Earth's surface are small pieces of an asteroid. Some have been traced back to Mars and the moon.
CONTRIBUTING Doyle Rice and Jim Sergent
SOURCE NASA, Sky & Telescope, EarthSky, Space.com and Timeandate.com
This story was updated to add new information.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Black Astronaut Made Space History in 1995. Now He's Getting Inducted into Hall of Fame (Exclusive)
Dr. Bernard Harris Jr. is being inducted into NASA's Astronaut Hall of Fame on Friday, May 31 He made history in 1995, becoming the first Black astronaut to perform a spacewalk "To be part of the foundation for what we're doing in space now is really fulfilling," he tells PEOPLEDr. Bernard Harris Jr. grew up in Texas as NASA was developing and always had an interest in science – but once he watched man land on the moon, even at 13, he began to have astronaut dreams. 'I knew what I wanted to do,' he tells PEOPLE. 'I wanted to follow the footsteps of these great men, human beings, that had done something for the very first time in human history.' That's exactly what he did. Now Harris — who became the first Black person to perform a spacewalk and recently released his second book, Embracing Infinite Possibilities — will be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday, May 31. Before going to college at the University of Houston, Harris, now 68, tells PEOPLE he realized he wanted to become a doctor so he could practice medicine on Earth – and in space. Following his residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Harris pursued a fellowship in endocrinology because he was 'advised to find the most critical aspect of humans in space that needed to be solved' — and one of those is bone loss. (Astronauts lose 1% of bone per month in space, he says.) By 1990, Harris applied and spent a year of astronaut basic training. About three weeks later, he was assigned to his first mission: the STS-55 on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1993. During that trip, Harris says he did the first medical examination in space and even the first intravenous line. 'It was only natural for me to say, 'Okay, if we're going to be in space for long periods of time, how do we ensure that humans can survive up there?' " he recalls. For his second mission, STS-63 on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1995, Harris completed his historic spacewalk. That mission was also notable because Eileen Collins made history as the first female space commander. 'To be part of the foundation for what we're doing in space now is really fulfilling,' he says, adding that he loves to see younger astronauts taking over – and having longer stays in space. Speaking of those longer stays, although the International Space Station wasn't built during his career as an astronaut, some of the devices that crews use today were originally developed in his laboratory. After his two space missions — which included logging 438 hours and traveling over 7.2 million miles — he ventured into philanthropy with the launch of his nonprofit, which supports youth programs in math and science education and crime prevention. Then it was time to go after his dream of becoming an entrepreneur – and his work has always been a bit ahead of the curve. As CEO and managing partner of Vesalius Ventures, Harris focused on telemedicine before many even knew how that would work and was previously hired by Spacehab (now the Astrotech Corporation), one of the first commercial private space companies. 'That was way ahead of SpaceX and Blue Origin, and what we're doing now," he adds. As for the future of space tourism and where he believes the space program is headed, Harris says he continues to be excited that there are more avenues to get to space. 'There'll be tremendous opportunities on the moon. And I think that when we then take that bigger leap to go to Mars,' he believes. He ultimately sees the continued progress as a way to unify. 'When I was out on my spacewalk," he says, 'looking back at the earth, [I realized] how important this spaceship that we live on planet Earth is to us all. From that distance, you can't see the divisions that divide us here on earth. And my hope is that space will be an opportunity for us to come together as a people." Embracing Infinite Possibilities is out now. You can purchase it here. Read the original article on People
Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Gizmodo
NASA Switches to Backup Fuel Line After Psyche Thruster Glitch
Less than two years after launch, NASA's Psyche spacecraft experienced a glitch in its propulsion system that's now jeopardizing its mission to explore a unique metallic asteroid in the main belt. NASA engineers, ever resourceful, implemented a fix for the spacecraft's unexpected drop in pressure by switching to a backup line—one they hope will help Psyche reach its namesake asteroid. Earlier in April, the team of engineers with the Psyche mission detected an unexpected decrease in fuel pressure in the spacecraft's propulsion system. The issue needed to be resolved before mid-June, otherwise it would have affected the spacecraft's trajectory towards the Psyche asteroid. After investigating, the team recently switched from the primary propellant line to a backup that NASA says is identical. The Psyche spacecraft remains on course to rendezvous with the asteroid in August 2029. Psyche's thrusters, powered by two large solar arrays, ionize and expel xenon gas to gently propel the spacecraft, according to NASA. The spacecraft began firing its thrusters in May 2024, but just over a year later, engineers detected a pressure drop in the line that delivers xenon gas to the thrusters—from 36 pounds per square inch (psi) to about 26 psi, according to NASA. After the sudden drop in pressure, the team paused the four electric thrusters as they investigated the issue. NASA's engineers ran extensive tests and diagnostic work and found that a part inside one of the valves, which opens and closes to manage the flow of propellant, stopped functioning the way it was designed to. As a result, the glitchy valve was obstructing the flow of xenon to the thrusters. The team then switched to the backup fuel line and will command the spacecraft's thrusters to resume firing by mid-June. The mission's engineers will keep the backup line's valve in the open position to 'ensure propellant flow and avoid any potential mechanical issues in the future,' NASA wrote. The mission is scheduled for a Mars flyby in spring 2026, using the planet's gravity to slingshot the spacecraft toward the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. If all goes well, the spacecraft will enter asteroid Psyche's orbit in late July 2029 and begin its mission in August of the same year. Psyche launched in October 2023, beginning a 2.2 billion-mile journey to a metal-rich asteroid located in the main belt. Its journey has been a long time in the making, and had run into issues even before its liftoff. The mission was originally scheduled to launch in 2022, but an issue with the spacecraft's flight software delayed the mission until its next launch window the next year. The spacecraft's flight software controls its orientation and trajectory, as well as its ability to send and receive data to Earth. A week before its original launch date on October 5, 2023, engineers discovered an issue with the Psyche spacecraft's thrusters that could have caused it to overheat during its eight-year mission. As a result, the mission's liftoff date was delayed by one week as the team resolved the issue. Psyche is a 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer) asteroid that may be the stripped-down core of a shattered planetesimal, one of the building blocks that come together to form a planet. If the mission manages to reach the asteroid, it will become the first to explore an asteroid of its kind. We're rooting for you, Psyche.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
The closer a volcano is to erupting, the greener the trees around it look from space
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists can tell whether a volcano is about to erupt from the greenness of the trees around it, with more vibrant leaves indicating a potentially imminent blast. Until now, these subtle color changes could be observed only from the ground — but researchers have recently found a way to monitor them from space. A new collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Institution could "change the game" when it comes to detecting the first signs of a volcanic eruption, volcanologists said in a statement published by NASA earlier this month. These signs can help to protect communities against the worst effects of volcanic blasts, including lava flows, ejected rocks, ashfalls, mudslides and toxic gas clouds. "Volcano early warning systems exist," Florian Schwandner, a volcanologist and chief of the Earth Science Division at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said in the statement. "The aim here is to make them better and make them earlier." Current indicators of an imminent volcanic eruption include seismic activity, changes in ground height and sulfur dioxide emissions, which are visible from space. Scientists also look out for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions linked to magma near Earth's surface, but these are harder to pinpoint with satellites than sulfur dioxide due to the ubiquity of CO2 in the atmosphere. "A volcano emitting the modest amounts of carbon dioxide that might presage an eruption isn't going to show up in satellite imagery," Robert Bogue, a doctoral student in volcanology at McGill University, Canada, said in the statement. Related: Watch mesmerizing 1,000-foot-tall lava fountains: Kilauea volcano erupting in ways not seen for 40 years But researchers are particularly interested in detecting these emissions because CO2 is one of the very first signs of a coming eruption — preceding even sulfur dioxide, according to the statement. To that end, scientists have been developing methods to monitor carbon dioxide based on the color of trees around volcanoes. Clouds of CO2 wafting from volcanoes that are about to blow boost the health of surrounding trees and plants, making their leaves greener and more lush. "The whole idea is to find something that we could measure instead of carbon dioxide directly," Bogue said in the statement. Until recently, scientists had to trek to volcanoes if they wanted to measure their CO2 levels. By using the color of tree leaves as an indicator of volcanic gas concentrations, researchers can save themselves the trouble of accessing remote and potentially dangerous locations — instead relying on satellites to do the hard work. A 2024 study published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment revealed a strong correlation between the carbon dioxide and trees around Mount Etna in Italy. Using pictures taken by Landsat 8 and other Earth-observing satellites between 2011 and 2018, the study's authors showed 16 clear spikes in both the amount of CO2 and vegetation's greenness, which coincided with upward migrations of magma from the volcano. "There are plenty of satellites we can use to do this kind of analysis," study lead author Nicole Guinn, a doctoral student in volcanology at the University of Houston in Texas, said in the statement. RELATED STORIES —Mystery of Bolivian 'zombie' volcano finally solved —Alaskan volcano Mount Spurr showing activity that will 'most likely end in an explosive eruption,' scientist says —Never-before-seen chain of volcanoes discovered hiding near the Cook Islands Measuring the greenness of trees from space won't be useful in all volcanic settings, however. Many volcanoes don't host trees – or at least not enough trees to measure with satellites, according to the statement. Some trees and forests may respond unexpectedly to changing carbon dioxide levels — for example, if they have been affected by fires, diseases or abnormal weather conditions. "Tracking the effects of volcanic carbon dioxide on trees will not be a silver bullet," Schwandner said. "But it is something that could change the game." To expand on the potential of the new method, researchers from NASA, the Smithsonian Institution and other organizations recently launched the Airborne Validation Unified Experiment: Land to Ocean (AVUELO), which will compare satellite images of trees around volcanoes with ground observations. The aim is to ensure the data match, so that scientists can calibrate space-borne instruments and take the research forward.
