MISSED this week’s impressive Draconids meteor shower? There are plenty of opportunities to spy fireballs soaring through the sky.
We’ve rounded up all of the upcoming meteor showers in 2019 and 2020, so you can plan ahead and catch them in action.
Meteor showers are when fireballs appear to streak across the night sky, like the recent Draconids shower.
What’s actually happening is many small pieces of debris are burning up as they enter Earth’s atmosphere.
Many of these showers are regularly repeated. The Orionids shower is debris from Halley’s Comet, a huge chunk of ice orbiting the Sun.
“What we are witnessing when we see a shooting star is a small piece of interplanetary matter, called a meteor, entering the Earth’s atmosphere and ‘burning up’ at a height of about 100 km,” explains the Greenwich Royal Observatory.
“These small particles are moving very fast relative to the Earth and when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they are completely evaporated and the air in the path of the meteor is ionised.
“We see light from the emission of radiation from the ionized gas and from the white-hot evaporating particle.
“The trail is the hot gas gradually cooling down.”
Meteor showers in 2019 – when is the next meteor shower?
Here are the remaining meteor showers set to occur in 2019.
- Orionids (October 21-22) – 25 meteors per hour
- Taurids (November 10-11) – 10 meteors per hour
- Leonids (November 17-18) – 30 to 300 meteors per hour
- Geminids (December 13-14) – 75 meteors per hour
- Ursids (December 21-22) – 5 meteors per hour
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)
Meteor showers in 2020 – when is the next meteor shower?
These are the meteor showers to look out for in 2020.
- Quadrantids (January 3-4) – 60 meteors per hour
- Lyrids (April 21-22) – 10 to 15 meteors per hour
- Eta Aquariids (May 5-6) – 35 meteors per hour
- Delta Aquariids (July 29-30) – 20 meteors per hour
- Alpha Capricornids (July 30) – 5 meteors per hour
- Perseids (August 12-13) – 75 meteors per hour
- Draconids (October 8-9) – 10 meteors per hour
- Orionids (October 21-22) – 25 meteors per hour
- Taurids (November 10-11) – 10 meteors per hour
- Leonids (November 17-18) – 30 to 300 meteors per hour
- Geminids (December 13-14) – 75 meteors per hour
- Ursids (December 21-22) – 5 meteors per hour
The Perseids meteor shower is one of the best to look out for, boasting bright and fast meteors with trains.
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Are you going to keep an eye out for any of these meteor showers? Let us know in the comments!
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