The Memorial Day night sky may be lit up by a brand-new meteor shower on Monday and Tuesday. You will be able to watch it live online.
There is a chance of 1,000 shooting stars per hour overnight Monday as the Earth passes through debris from the comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann. Scientists don't know if it will last or not. One NASA scientist called it an all or nothing event.
You can watch live views of the shower from the Virtual Telescope Project in Ceccano, Italy. There will be a free webcast at 12 am. Masi told Space.com that it will feature views from all-sky cameras in Arizona and Brazil.
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More: Potential meteor shower is 'all or nothing event,' NASA says
There is a chance for the shower to happen because of the disintegrating nature of the comet. The comet was discovered in 1930 and it comes within 5.7 million miles of the sun each time.
It is not certain if the debris from the comet will produce a shower of fireballs or not.
The speed of the material from the comet is what determines the shower's speed, according to Bill Cooke, an astronomer at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
If the debris from SW 3 was traveling more than 220 miles per hour when it separated from the comet, we might see a nice meteor shower.
The shower would be "all or nothing" according to the statement.
Dates and viewing advice are included in the guide.
The Hubble Space Telescope spotted a comet splitting apart in April of 2006 after outbursts from the comet between 1995 and 2000 increased its brightness. There were as many as 68 different fragments of the comet by March.
To see any meteors from the Herculid meteor shower, observers should try to get away from city lights as any shooting stars will likely be faint due to their slow speed.
If it makes it to us this year, the debris from SW 3 will strike Earth's atmosphere very slowly, traveling at just 10 miles per second.
If you take a picture of the Herculids meteor shower and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photos, comments and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
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