Draconids meteor shower to fill UK skies with fireballs AGAIN tonight – how to spot it
STARGAZERS are in luck as the Draconids meteor shower should be lighting up the night sky again tonight.
The annual October shower is usually a good time to spot shooting stars and as many as 1,000 can be on display per hour.
However, it's more realistic that five or six shooting stars will actually be visible with the naked eye each hour.
This is because the meteors are often too small and fast to spot without a telescope.
If you do want to try and spot them then your best chance will be in a rural area far away from light pollution.
They will be most visible just after nightfall so try looking at the sky from around 6pm BST tonight.
The shooting stars are coming from the direction of the Draco the dragon constellation.
This also happens to be the constellation that they're named after.
They are created as the Earth passes through the debris from the 21 P/Giacobini-Zinner comet.
The Draconids are well-known for being unpredictable and no one can say for sure how many meteors people will be able to see.
In 2011, European stargazers could catch a glimpse of 600 an hour.
Luckily, October has two meteor shower events so if you miss out on this one you may still be able to catch the Orionid shower in a few weeks.
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)
In other space news, a massive swarm of asteroids including a space rock larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza is soaring past Earth.
An asteroid obliterated early human civilisations in a catastrophic collision with Earth 13,000 years ago, scientists claim.
And, scientists have put together a minute by minute timeline of what happened when the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs struck Earth.
Will you be looking out for the Draconids? Let us know in the comments...
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