Heads Up: Fireballs from Halley's Comet to Light Up Skies this Week

Earth is approaching a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. If forecasters are correct, the shower will peak on the nights of May 4th through 6th with as many as 40 meteors per hour. The Eta Aquarids are best viewed from the southern hemisphere, but there's something special about them no matter where you live: Each Eta Aquarid meteoroid is a piece of Halley's Comet doing a kamikaze death dive into the atmosphere. Halley's Comet orbits the sun once every 76 years. Although the Comet is deep in the outer solar system at the moment and won't return to Earth until 2061, it treats us to a meteor shower twice a year as our planet passes by the debris cloud. In May we have the Eta Aquarids, and in October the Orionids. Clear Skies Everyone!



https://youtu.be/pNhdQzRJOnc