Topline<\/p>\n
The Lyrids, the first meteor shower since January and one of the oldest known is set to begin on Thursday, April 17, 2025, though the peak in the early hours of Tuesday, April 22. During that peak, about 18 \u201cshooting stars,\u201d some very bright fireballs, are expected each hour.<\/p>\n
Vector illustration of a Lyrids Meteor Shower April event web banner design template. Fully … More editable vector eps and high resolution jpg in download. Royalty free design.<\/p>\n
getty <\/p>\n
Key Facts<\/p>\n
After a few months of little-to-no meteor activity, everything changes in spring in the Northern Hemisphere with the Lyrid meteor shower, famous for bright \u201cfireball\u201d shooting stars. Fireballs are defined as meteors about the same brightness as Venus<\/a>.<\/p>\n Occurring April 17-26 this year, the Lyrids typically produce good rates of bright meteors for three nights centered on the maximum, according to the American Meteor Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n That makes Monday, April 21, Tuesday, April 22 and Wednesday, April 23, good nights. However, clear and dark skies are essential, so the early hours after midnight \u2014 when any location on Earth is the darkest \u2014 is the best time to look up.<\/p>\n Lyrids are best seen from the Northern Hemisphere because they appear to emanate from the constellation Lyra, which is centered upon the bright star Vega. It\u2019s rising in the northeastern night sky after dark.<\/p>\n The Lyrid meteor shower is the product of dust and debris left in the inner solar system by long-period comet C\/1861 G1 Thatcher, which takes 422 years to orbit the sun. It last looped around our star in 1861 and won\u2019t return until 2283. \u201cIt\u2019s obscure comet that nobody really knows much about because it spends most of its time far away, where we can\u2019t even see it with even our most powerful telescopes,\u201d said Dr. Nick Moskovitz at Lowell Observatory, in an interview.<\/p>\n What Are Meteors?<\/p>\n Meteors are caused by small particles of rock and dust from a comet entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere and burning up, releasing energy as photons of light. According to NASA<\/a>, they come from leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids. \u201cComet Thatcher has a wide range of little particles that fall off its surface, from very small fine grain stuff, like talcum powder, to much larger particles like marbles, even apples, oranges and grapefruits,\u201d said Moskovitz. \u201cThat means a wide range of brightnesses \u2014 and some of the Lyrid meteors can be spectacular fireball meteors that leave what we call a persistent train in the atmosphere.\u201d Fireballs result from really big meteors exciting atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere that get ionized. \u201cThat ionized trail of particles can persist for a long time after the meteor comes in,\u201d said Moskovitz.<\/p>\n How To Watch A Meteor Shower<\/p>\n The best way to watch a meteor shower is to treat it as a stargazing session. Be outside in the pre-dawn hours on the peak night and watch the skies. Don’t look at your smartphone \u2014 its bright white light will kill your night vision and make the \u201cshooting stars\u201d much harder to see. Keep artificial lights \u2014 including street and security lights \u2014 out of your vision. Although the \u201cshooting stars\u201d will appear to have traveled from close to Vega, meteor showers are all-sky events, so you can look anywhere in the night sky.<\/p>\n Background<\/p>\n Hot on the heels of the Lyrids will come the Eta Aquariids, a meteor shower that will run from April 19 through May 28, peaking in the early hours of Monday, May 5. About 40-60 \u201cshooting stars\u201d are expected per hour. The Eta Aquariids are the product of Halley\u2019s Comet, the most famous comet. This short-period comet last visited the inner solar system in 1986 and is next due in 2061. This meteor shower is best seen in the Southern Hemisphere since its radiant point is the constellation Aquarius, which is low in the southeast as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n Further ReadingForbesTotal Solar Eclipse 2024 Photos: NASA Astronauts Take Historic Images From SpaceBy Jamie Carter<\/a>ForbesThe Greatest Eclipse Of Your Life Is Coming Soon \u2014 Here\u2019s What To KnowBy Jamie Carter<\/a>
\nForbesWhy Is Easter So Late? Why The \u2018Pink Moon\u2019 Delays Easter In 2025By Jamie Carter<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline The Lyrids, the first meteor shower since January and one of the oldest known is set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[15712,15706,15707,15710,15711,15709,15703,15705,15704,70,15708,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-25777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-aquariids","9":"tag-c-1861-g1-thatcher","10":"tag-comets","11":"tag-eta-aquarid","12":"tag-eta-aquariid","13":"tag-fireballs","14":"tag-lyrid","15":"tag-lyrids","16":"tag-meteor-shower","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-shooting-stars","19":"tag-space","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114349775788909746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}