nextbet One of 2024’s Last Meteor Showers Is About to Reach Its Peak
Updated:2025-01-04 13:15 Views:150
The longest night in the Northern Hemisphere is upon us. And it will be accompanied by a holiday light show from the Ursids, the last major meteor shower of the year to peak.
The shower, active from Dec. 17 to 26, reaches its peak Dec. 21 to the 22, or Saturday night into Sunday morning. That coincides with the winter solstice, the day when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky.
Meteors from the Ursids appear near the Little Dipper, which is part of the constellation Ursa Minor. Only skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere will have a chance of seeing this shower. The moon will be just over half full, making streaks in the sky even more challenging to spot.
To get a hint at when to watch, you can use a meter that relies on data from the Global Meteor Network showing when real-time fireball activity levels increase in the coming days.
Where meteor showers come from
There is a chance you might see a meteor on any given night, but you are most likely to catch one during a shower. Meteor showers are caused by Earth passing through the rubble trailing a comet or asteroid as it swings around the sun. This debris, which can be as small as a grain of sand, leaves behind a glowing stream of light as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Meteor showers occur around the same time every year and can last for days or weeks. But there is only a small window when each shower is at its peak, which happens when Earth reaches the densest part of the cosmic debris. The peak is the best time to look for a shower. From our point of view on Earth, the meteors will appear to come from the same point in the sky.
pixies of the forest
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