The remnants behind Halley’s comet will deliver the annual Orionid meteor shower this weekend in North America.
The Orionid meteor shower is typically one of the best of the year, with about 10 to 20 meteors visible per hour during peak conditions, under a new moon.
Recommended Videos
The meteor shower usually stretches from late September to late November, with peak viewing landing somewhere in October.
When will Orionid meteor shower peak in 2023?
The predicted peak for the 2023 Orionid meteor shower is Oct. 21-Oct. 22, from 1 a.m. to dawn, according to the American Meteor Society. Meteors will be visible throughout North America.
How to see the Orionid meteor shower?
Here’s what AMS said about viewing this year: “In fact the Orionids are strong for several night surrounding October 22nd, so if the night of maximum is predicted to be cloudy, you can still witness good rates just before and after the maximum. As for bright city lights, it is highly recommended that you find a safe rural observing spot away from city lights as the more stars you can see, the more meteors you will count.”
“The best way to see these meteors is to lie in a comfortable lounge chair with the back angled so that you are looking about half-way up in the sky. You can look straight up if your sky near the horizon is brightly lit, but more meteors are seen in the lower half of the sky than straight up as you are looking through a much thicker column of the atmosphere.”
---> Track the latest weather conditions here
What’s the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite?
Meteoroids: Objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids.
Meteors: When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors.
Meteorites: When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite.
Scientists estimate that about 48.5 tons (44 tonnes or 44,000 kilograms) of meteoritic material falls on Earth each day, according to NASA.