Free Republic

Those meteors could flare up when our planet passes through the pieces of a disintegrating comet called Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW3). It isn't just an exciting opportunity for skywatchers; comet scientists eagerly anticipate the encounter as well. According to NASA, the meteor shower could amaze (or disappoint) overnight on Memorial Day (Monday, May 30) and run into early Tuesday. SW3 is fairly close to the sun by comet standards; it completes an orbit of our star once every five years. In 1995, it started to break apart, shattering into dozens of smaller pieces and leaving behind a cloud of debris that...

Explanation: Named for a forgotten constellation, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower puts on an annual show for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers. The shower's radiant on the sky lies within the old, astronomically obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis. That location is not far from the Big Dipper, at the boundaries of the modern constellations Bootes and Draco. In fact north star Polaris is just below center in this frame and the Big Dipper asterism (known to some as the Plough) is above it, with the meteor shower radiant to the right. Pointing back toward the radiant, Quadrantid meteors streak through the night...

Jupiter, Saturn and Venus have lined up in the evening sky and will continue to be prominent features throughout most of December, but this week, the trio will get a visitor. The easy-to-find planets, paired with the approaching peak of the Geminid meteor shower, make December a great month for evening stargazing. The only caveat is that the weather can be fickle during the long December nights, often offering frosty conditions on nights that are not cloudy. The moon started off the week next to Venus, and as the week progresses, it will continue to move up the chain, passing...

What better way to celebrate the start of May than by catching a glimpse of a meteor shower? The 2021 Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak on the evening of Tuesday, May 4, through the early morning of Wednesday, May 5, according to AccuWeather. The month of May starts off with the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Mercury will be visible in the middle of the month, and some parts of the U.S. will see a super total lunar eclipse on the 26th. What better way to celebrate the start of May than by catching a glimpse of a meteor shower?...

Explanation: Where do Geminid meteors come from? In terms of location on the sky, as the featured image composite beautifully demonstrates, the sand-sized bits of rock that create the streaks of the Geminids meteor shower appear to flow out from the constellation of Gemini. In terms of parent body, Solar System trajectories point to the asteroid 3200 Phaethon -- but this results in a bit of a mystery since that unusual object appears mostly dormant. Perhaps, 3200 Phaethon undergoes greater dust-liberating events than we know. Over 50 meteors including a bright fireball were captured during the peak of the 2015...

This week stargazers will be able to see up to 25 shooting stars per hour fly across the night sky as the Orionid Meteor Shower puts on its annual show. These meteors streak across the sky each October, through until November 7 – but peak viewing is expected on Wednesday, October 21 around midnight. This cosmic event happens when Earth passes through stream of debris left behind Comet Halley – the parent comet of the Orionid shower. You should be able to see the shooting stars from whatever direction you look, but they will appear to come from the constellation...

Astronomers expect that this year’s Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower will be an epic outburst with possible rates of up to 400 shooting stars an hour. ================================================================= Sky-watchers may get to see 2019 really go out with a bang, with the expected arrival this week of an explosion of shooting stars. If astronomers’ predictions hold true, the Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower could come to life in dramatic fashion on November 21 and 22, with possible rates of up to 400 shooting stars an hour during its relatively brief peak. Such an outburst would make this shower at least four times more...

Blue asteroids are rare, and blue comets are almost unheard of. An international team led by Teddy Kareta, a graduate student at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, investigated (3200) Phaethon, a bizarre asteroid that sometimes behaves like a comet, and found it even more enigmatic than previously thought. Phaethon sets itself apart for two reasons: it appears to be one of the "bluest" of similarly colored asteroids or comets in the solar system; and its orbit takes it so close to the Sun that its surface heats up to about 800 degrees Celsius (1,500 degrees Fahrenheit), hot...

Sunday morning [Sat-Sun overnight] will offer another opportunity to view one of the best meteor showers of the fall with over a dozen meteors streaking across the night sky every hour. Clear skies will bring excellent viewing conditions for those across the eastern United States while clouds, rain and wildfire smoke obscure the shower for some areas in the western and central U.S. The Orionids is an annual meteor shower that is caused by debris left behind by Halley’s Comet burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. “The shower will produce somewhere between 10 and 20 meteors per hour,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist...

The American Meteor Society says the flash of light that was spotted on Wednesday afternoon in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maryland and Delaware was a fireball.

October is jam-packed with sky-watching delights, from shooting stars created by a famed comet to a celestial dance featuring the moon, Mars, and Venus. The night skies will also showcase a far-flung planet at its best for the year, while early mornings will offer a lunar hide-and-seek with a brilliant star. So dust off those binoculars, and mark your October calendar! Mars and Venus Join Forces—October 5 Moon Meets Stellar Bull's Eye—October 9 Moon Buzzes Beehive—October 13 Moon Eclipses Leo’s Heart—October 15 Zodiacal Lights—October 15-30 Planetary Pair Hosts Moon—October 17 Big, Bright Uranus—October 19 Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks—October 21 Bouncing...

Explanation: Leonid meteors rained down on planet Earth this week, the annual shower of dusty debris from the orbit of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Leonids streak through this composite night skyview from a backyard observatory in southern Ontario. Recorded with camera fixed to a tripod, the individual frames capture the bright meteor activity throughout the night of November 16/17, about a day before the shower's very modest peak. The frames are registered to the fixed field of view, so the meteor trails are not all aligned to the background star field recorded that same evening when nebula-rich Orion stood above the southern...

The sighting came as the Earth passed through the debris cloud from Halley’s Comet, which produces the annual Orionid meteor shower. Bill Cooke of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told ABC News there were "several bright Orionids last night, as well as a spectacular fireball over middle Tennessee" that he said broke apart at 24 miles altitude just south of Nashville.

A meteor shower spawned by history’s most famous comet will peak this weekend, and the show could be dazzling for observers with clear skies, experts say. The Orionid meteor shower will reach its zenith overnight from Saturday to Sunday (Oct. 20-21) as Earth plows through debris shed by Halley’s Comet on its path around the sun. The most impressive display should come a few hours before dawn Sunday, when our planet hits the densest patch of Halley’s detritus. "Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour," Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment...

Bits of Halley's Comet will streak into the Earth's atmosphere before dawn on Sunday during the peak of the eta Aquarid meteor shower. Although moonlight will make all but the brightest meteors impossible to see, those that are visible may be quite spectacular due to the geometry of the shower. Halley's Comet last swung by the Earth in 1986 and now lies in the outer solar system. But every time it passes near the Sun on its 76-year orbit, the nucleus of the icy object sheds about 6 metres of material, which spreads out along the comet's orbit. Twice a...

Oct. 17, 2001: Next Sunday, try doing something out of the ordinary: Wake up at 3 a.m. Put on warm clothes. Step outside. Look up. If the skies are cloudy, go back to bed. Otherwise keep looking. Before long you'll spot something that makes the trip outside worthwhile: a bright shooting star -- and a genuine piece of Halley's comet! "It's the annual Orionid meteor shower," explains Bill Cooke, a member of the Space Environments team at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). "Every year in October Earth passes through a stream of dusty debris shed long ago by Halley's ...

The peak of the summer's best meteor shower – the Perseids– peaks overnight tonight (Aug. 12), but you'll need good weather to see it. Just in case your night sky cloudy or hazy, you can check out the annual meteor shower on webcasts online by Slooh, NASA and the Virtual Telescope Project. You can watch the Perseid meteor shower webcast here, courtesy of the astronomy broadcast service Slooh. The 6-hour webcast begins at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) and you can watch it directly on Slooh.com. During the broadcast, viewers can use the hashtag #Slooh on social media to share...

It’s August, and that means we will have  ☆*¨`*☆StArrY, StArrY NiGhƮs☆*¨`*☆So grab your dog and your camera…and head out to capture some magnificent images under the night sky. The Perseids Meteor shower is at its peak tonight.Photo by Andrew RhodesEnjoy it while you can.Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

Something VERY strange occurred tonight while my girlfriend and I were soaking in our spa in the backyard about 9:45 PM. We live in the unincorporated area between Sacramento and Rancho Cordova, CA. It was a very cool and clear night and we could, for the first time in a long while see the stars clearly. We turned off the security lights that illuminated the walkway along the garage and enjoyed to clear stars as we lay back and enjoyed a glass of brandy in the spa. Air temperature was about 46º F but the water temperature was a toasty...

This weekend presents the Orionid meteor shower at its best, and tonight – the night of October 20-21, 2017 – may well be the shower’s peak night. Late Saturday night and Sunday morning may be good times to watch as well. On both of these nights, meteors should become visible starting at late evening. They’ll probably be most prolific in the few hours before dawn on October 21, but try watching before dawn on October 22, too. From a dark site, you might see a maximum of about 10 to 15 meteors per hour. Fortunately, today is only one day...