Meteor Showers | Universe Today

On Sunday, March 22, two meteor showers will grace the dark evening sky – the Camelopardalids and March Geminids. Would you like to learn more about what makes them special and why? Then let's head out into the dark… Read more…

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Last night, the Colorado skies played host to a dazzling fireball event. The meteor blasted through the atmosphere, detonated and outshone the Moon by 100 times. It is therefore expected that there were many eyewitnesses, and the Cloudbait Observatory (5 km north of the town of Guffey, CO) is appealing to people to report their accounts of the fireball. Fortunately, the observatory managed to capture an all-sky camera video of the early morning explosion.

The Colorado fireball comes shortly after a similar event over Canada on November 20th, where over two dozen meteorite fragments have been recovered from agricultural land. We wait in anticipation to see if this huge Colorado fireball produced any similar fragments, but eyewitness accounts will be critical to aid such a search…
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Meteor showers are great fun. The streaks and flashes create a special type of astronomical fireworks. But there are some people out there who enjoy meteor showers in a different way. They don't watch the meteors. Instead, they watch the moon. There are fireworks there, too, in the form of explosions — equivalent to about 100 pounds of TNT — when meteors hit the lunar surface.
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The Perseids are coming! The Perseids are coming! I'm sure you're already hearing the cry around the world… But what will be the best place to watch and when will be the best date to see the most "shooting stars"? Follow along and let's find out… Read more…

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Having the New Moon on our side may very well increase your chances of catching a well established meteor shower which is now reaching its peak activity time – the Eta Aquarids. No matter where you live or what time zone you observe from, the best time to look for the offspring of Halley's Comet is over the next few nights during the hours just before dawn. Read more…

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There’s another two odd meteor showers about to happen. It’s just after Full Moon. Why bother to take a look at the night sky when chances are poor of seeing a meteor? The reason is clear and the cause is confirmation. Read more…

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Many lucky people in the Pacific Northwest United States got the treat of a lifetime on Tuesday morning. A bright fireball blazed across the sky at 5:31 am near Portland, Oregon. Apparently the meteor was so bright, people saw it in Washington, Idaho, and even as far away as British Columbia (hey, why didn't I see it?).

Here's a surveillance video captured by a camera in Boise, Idaho.

I often get emails from people who saw a bright fireball in the sky. When I'm done seething with jealousy, I suggest they contact their appropriate meteor society (for example, the American Meteor Society in the US) and report the details. Scientists working in this field will thank you.

So let me know, were you one of the lucky ones to see it? Post your story in the comments.

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With over 100 meteors per hour, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower is one of the latest mergers between Google and NASA, a major asset to space research due to their successful combination of ideas and plans. This peak shower began around 0200 UTC on Friday morning, January 4th, with the jet owned by the founders of Mountain View-based Google flying amongst big science players, such as the SETI research team.
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Every day, material is raining down on the Earth. Fortunately, we've got an atmosphere to protect us. As the tiny particles impact the atmosphere, air piles up in front of them, heating up, and blazing a trail in the sky. That's a meteor. According to a team of Japanese researchers, as the micrometeoroids rain down, they carve out tiny tunnels just a few millimetres across.
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I just wanted to give you all another gentle reminder about the Aurigid Meteor Shower, due to light the heavens on September 1st, 2007. Although the shower won't peak until early tomorrow morning, astrophotographer John Chumack has already captured one on camera, and made a little video of its path through the skies. Now, we don't know if this meteor shower is going to be amazing or boring, it's all a mystery.
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