A STUNNING meteor shower is set to reach its peak this evening, meaning you could see dozens of bright shooting stars per hour.
The Orionids is one of the best meteor showers to watch so if you’re a budding stargazer just follow the steps below.
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How to see the Orionid meteor shower
The best time to see the Orionids will be on October 21 just after midnight so you’ll need to stay up late tonight.
However, they should be very bright from around October 20 – 22.
The meteors appear to radiate from the Orion constellation but you should be able to spot them all over the sky.
Orionid meteors actually become visible in our skies every year from around October 2 until November 7.
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They are just much more visible around the peak and in the very early hours of the morning.
You could try downloading a sky scanning app to locate the Orion constellation but it isn’t necessary to look in one particular part of the sky.
The Orionid meteor showers are one of the most spectacular astral shows of the year.
When the weather is good and there is limited light pollution, you should be able to see the meteors with the naked eye.
Nasa dubs the Orionid meteor shower as “one of the most beautiful meteor showers of the year”.
Each hour about 20 meteors zoom through the skies, at speeds 148,000 mph, the Orionids are one of the most impressive events in the sky’s calendar.
It happens 60 miles up in space, when the Earth moves through a cloud of thousands and thousands of space rocks which would be left behind by the famous Halley’s Comet.
What’s the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here’s what you need to know, according to Nasa…
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
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Will you be stargazing this week? Let us know in the comments…
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
