The Lyrid meteor shower streaks through the sky
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The Lyrid meteor shower hits its peak on the evening of 22 April, or early hours of the 23rd, but you can look for them any time between the 16th and 25th. New Scientist‘s stargazing companion will talk you through what to look for. You can find the audio below or in the podcast episode feed for The world, the universe and us.
Meteors are caused by high-speed debris from space hitting Earth’s atmosphere. These tiny grains of dust or rock enter the atmosphere at such speeds that the friction between them and the air makes them burn up, producing a flash that moves across the sky.
As Earth makes its yearly journey around the sun, it passes through a series of clouds of dust and debris, left behind by comets or asteroids, causing an increase in the number of meteors we see. This is why the same meteor showers happen at similar times each year.
The Lyrids meteor shower is caused by the long-period comet C/1861 G1, also known as Thatcher. Discovered in 1861, Thatcher takes 415 years to orbit the sun. It is expected to return to our part of the solar system around the year 2278.
You don’t need to look in one part of the sky to see a meteor shower. But each one is named after the bit of the sky where the meteors seem to start, or radiate from. In this case, it is the northern hemisphere constellation Lyra, which contains the bright star Vega.
If you are in the northern hemisphere, you can look for the constellation Lyra. The constellation won’t be visible from the southern hemisphere, but meteors can travel in all directions, so some shooting stars might be visible if you look east.
From the northern hemisphere, Lyra will be in the east just after sunset. If you’re looking a little later, it will be higher up in the sky, making it a better time to look for meteors – although the closer you get to sunrise, the brighter the sky will be.
The easiest way to find Lyra is to look for a pattern of stars known as the Summer Triangle, so named because it is made up of three bright stars in a triangle shape and, in summer in the northern hemisphere, around midnight, it appears directly overhead. At midnight in late April, the three bright stars will appear near the eastern horizon. The highest of these is Vega, and this is in Lyra.
If you’re looking at the peak, and you have clear and dark skies, you could see between 10 and 18 meteors in an hour.
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