Meteor Showers

A new meteor shower is going to happen on Tuesday, December 12th. Scientists are calling it "Lambda-Sculptorids", and the meteors are coming from the Comet 46P/Wirtanen. The comet was discovered in 1948, and orbits the sun every 5.4 years.Since meteor showers tend to happen once a year, scientists were very confused why we haven't noticed them. Upon researching the topic, they discovered that the comet has brought meteors here before. However, the low-velocity entry speed could have prevented the meteor shower from happening.The Comet 46P/Wirtanen made its closest approach to earth on December 16, 2018, when it passed over 7 million miles from our planet.When this happened, NASA captured the image you see above in the Taurus constellation. Even though it was really close to Earth,...

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower, which started on April 15th, will peak this Saturday.What makes the Eta Aquarids special is the meteors are space debris from Halley's Comet, which returns to earth about every 75 years. This meteor shower is best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, or close to the equator. However, some people in northern areas can observe them as well. If you get a chance to look, you can expect somewhere around 50 meteors per hour. However if you live in the northern hemisphere, you can expect between 10-30 meteors per hour.The best time to view seems to be around 2am., and meteors are expected to show all across the sky - not just in the Aquarius Constellation.If you are interested in the return of Halley's comet, we will have to wait awhile - it's expected...