There is a chance to see a dozen or so meteors an hour streaking across the night sky this week.
Each year, the lyrids occur when Earth's path takes it through a trail of debris from the comet Thatcher. At 4 a.m., the shower will reach its maximum. Universal time is coordinated. The AMS says that the time is on Friday, April 22, at Eastern Daylight Time. The best time to view the moon is after the peak as it will be on the wane. It is the first chance to see a lot of meteors since the Quadrantid shower ended in January.
Ka Chun Yu, the curator of space science at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, told Live Science that people talk about this as being like the first robin of spring.
A good view of the meteors is difficult when the moon is full. In ideal viewing conditions, the Lyrids typically produce a maximum of about 18 meteors an hour, but the actual rate depends on the amount of light pollution and the viewer's position relative to the radiant, or the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to emanate. The best place to observe the lyrids is in the Northern Hemisphere, where the star Vega is visible. There are meteorites visible from the Southern Hemisphere.
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According to EarthSky, the best time to look for Lyrids this year is about an hour before midnight, when the moon will not be very high in the sky. Longer-tailed meteors are the most visible farther from the radiant. There are meteorites in the sky. The best viewing rules? Get away from light pollution as much as possible, give your eyes 30 minutes to adjust, and lay flat on your back to take in as much sky as possible.
It might be possible to get into the shadows of a tree or dark building on April 22 because of the moonlit nature of the night.
The reason for the Lyrids was discovered in the 19th century. The comet takes over 400 years to reach the sun and has been there for a long time.
The comet is currently in the far reaches of the solar system. It is still heading outbound in its long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, far away as far as the distance between Earth and the sun. It will return to the interior of the solar system.
Yu said that the bits of dust and debris that burn up to create the light show are only about the size of grains of sand, but they are traveling at up to 50 kilometers per second relative to Earth.
At a rate of up to 100 per hour, the Lyrids produce outbursts, or meteors showering through Earth's atmosphere every 60 years. EarthSky predicts that the next outburst year will be 2042, which is unlikely this year. The comet's debris trail is caused by the impact of the planets on it.
When they all tend to be roughly aligned, it can cause the path of the debris to shift so Earth will intersect it in the center of the trail.
April 29 is the end of the lyrids. The peak of the alpha Capricornids will be on the night of July 30. According to the AMS, the alpha Capricornids rarely produce more than five meteors an hour, but do produce bright fireballs. Casual skywatchers may want to hold out for the Perseids, which are active from July 14 to Sept. 1 this year and can produce 50 to 75 visible meteors an hour.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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