Set your alarm clocks Thursday morning! The Lyrid Meteor Shower will decorate the skies just before dawn on Thursday.
Every year near the end of April, the earth passes through debris from Comet Thatcher. This is the source of a beautiful display of meteors called the Lyrid Meteor Shower.
According to Spaceweather.com, the dusty debris making up Comet Thatcher's tail is very small, no bigger than a grain of sand. As the debris travels over 45 mph, it hits the earth's atmosphere, disintegrating as a streak of light - a meteor! The meteors are about as bright as the stars making up the Big Dipper.
Forecasters expect around 10-20 meteors per hour Thursday morning.
Occasionally, the shower intensifies. Most years in April there are no more than 5 to 20 meteors per hour during the shower's peak. But sometimes, when Earth glides through an unusually dense clump of comet debris, the rate increases. Sky watchers in 1982, for instance, counted 90 Lyrids per hour. An even more impressive outburst was documented in 1803 by a journalist in Richmond, Virginia, who wrote:
Lyra is easy to find because it's marked by the brilliant blue-white star Vega. Vega ranks fifth-brightest of all nighttime stars.
What will the Lyrids do this year? The only way to know for sure is to go outside and look.
Interesting facts about meteors
Most visible meteors lie within 120 miles (200 kilometers) of an observer.
Meteors become visible at an average height of 55 miles. Nearly all burn up before they reach an altitude of 50 miles.
No known meteorite has been associated with a meteor shower.
The typical bright meteor is produced by a particle with a mass less than 1 gram with a size no larger than a pea.
The hourly rate on a "non-shower" night is approximately 6 meteors per hour.
A meteoroid enters the atmosphere at velocities between 25,000 and 165,000 mph (40,300-265,000 km/h).
Every year near the end of April, the earth passes through debris from Comet Thatcher. This is the source of a beautiful display of meteors called the Lyrid Meteor Shower.
According to Spaceweather.com, the dusty debris making up Comet Thatcher's tail is very small, no bigger than a grain of sand. As the debris travels over 45 mph, it hits the earth's atmosphere, disintegrating as a streak of light - a meteor! The meteors are about as bright as the stars making up the Big Dipper.
Forecasters expect around 10-20 meteors per hour Thursday morning.
Occasionally, the shower intensifies. Most years in April there are no more than 5 to 20 meteors per hour during the shower's peak. But sometimes, when Earth glides through an unusually dense clump of comet debris, the rate increases. Sky watchers in 1982, for instance, counted 90 Lyrids per hour. An even more impressive outburst was documented in 1803 by a journalist in Richmond, Virginia, who wrote:
"Shooting stars. This electrical phenomenon was observed on Wednesday morning last at Richmond and its vicinity, in a manner that alarmed many, and astonished every person that beheld it. From one until three in the morning, those starry meteors seemed to fall from every point in the heavens, in such numbers as to resemble a shower of sky rockets..."
Lyra is easy to find because it's marked by the brilliant blue-white star Vega. Vega ranks fifth-brightest of all nighttime stars.
What will the Lyrids do this year? The only way to know for sure is to go outside and look.
Interesting facts about meteors
Most visible meteors lie within 120 miles (200 kilometers) of an observer.
Meteors become visible at an average height of 55 miles. Nearly all burn up before they reach an altitude of 50 miles.
No known meteorite has been associated with a meteor shower.
The typical bright meteor is produced by a particle with a mass less than 1 gram with a size no larger than a pea.
The hourly rate on a "non-shower" night is approximately 6 meteors per hour.
A meteoroid enters the atmosphere at velocities between 25,000 and 165,000 mph (40,300-265,000 km/h).
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