Meteor shower to light up midnight skies today

Several times a year, hundreds of celestial fireballs light up the night skies in what is known as a meteor shower. While one of the most well-known meteor showers – The Perseids – will be occurring in August, you do not have to wait that long to admire the phenomenon yourself.A meteor shower called the Delta Aquarids is happening right now, and will be most visible to the naked eye around July 28 and 29.

A meteor shower called the Delta Aquarids is happening right now, and will be most visible to the naked eye around July 28 and 29.According to Science Alert, the Delta Aquarids shower will be most visible in the southern hemisphere, however those in the northern hemisphere may also be able to see it.

While the peak for the shower will be on July 28 and 29, the display will continue until around August 23, overlapping with the Perseid shower, which occurs in mid-August. Catching a glimpse of the Delta Aquarids will very much depend on your location, though the best time to watch the sky for these shooting stars will be around midnight.

Because meteors can be quite faint, it is best to look out for them in a dark sky, free of moonlight and artificial lights.If you cannot see the meteors yourself, there is good news – Slooh, an online observatory, will be live streaming the meteor shower from an observatory on the Canary Islands, with meteorologists talking through what can be seen, and taking questions from viewers.

Meteor showers occur when a comet comes close to the sun and produces debris – meteoroids – that spread around the comet’s orbit.The Earth experiences a meteor shower when the Earth’s orbit coincides with the comet’s.

Since meteoroids that create a meteor shower all move on a parallel path, and at the same speed, they seem to originate from a single point in the sky to observers on Earth, known as the radiant.

Meteor showers are usually named after the constellation that their radiant lies in.For example, the Delta Aquarids shower is named as such because its radiant appears to lie in the constellation Aquarius, near one of the constellation’s brightest stars, Delta Aquarii.

While astronomers know that the Delta Aquarids shower occurs every July, little is known about the comet that produces the meteors.
*Adapted from DailyMailUK Online