All posts tagged: Meteor

Move over, giant meteor. Here’s what the largest comet would do to Earth

Move over, giant meteor. Here’s what the largest comet would do to Earth

Published by Jenni Sidey

Out there, in the farthest recesses of the Solar System, a great existential threat lies in wait: the Oort cloud. Formed at the same time as the protostar that would become our Sun and the protoplanetary disk that would give rise to the planets, asteroids, and moons, it largely consists of the remnants of that same primitive material. Whatever wasn’t either boiled off by the Sun or locked up into the planetary, lunar, asteroidal, or Kuiper belt objects we have today persisted in series of objects, ranging from tiny to planet-sized, in a spheroidal cloud. The closest Oort cloud objects might “only” originate from a thousand times the Earth-Sun distance, but the full extent of this cloud reaches up to one or two light-years away. Today, these bodies, mostly a mix of ice-and-rock, remain in slow, quasi-stable orbits in the deepest recesses of our Solar System. But every once in a while, a chance gravitational encounter will perturb the orbit of one of those objects, and either eject it from the cloud into interstellar space …

‘Beautiful streaks’: Eta Aquariids meteor shower to light up skies over Britain | Science, Climate & Tech News

‘Beautiful streaks’: Eta Aquariids meteor shower to light up skies over Britain | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by Sam Flores

The cosmos is set to put on a show later this week when a celestial event reaches its peak. The Eta Aquariid meteor shower will reach its crescendo between midnight and dawn on Wednesday. British stargazers will have the best chance of witnessing the shower closer to dawn at locations removed from streetlamp and other light pollution. Eta Aquariid is active between 19 April and 28 May this year, according to Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG). The astronomical event is associated with Halley’s Comet, which passes by Earth about every 76 years on its trip around the sun. Image: An Eta Aquariid meteor streaking over northern Georgia in 2012. Pic: NASA/AP What is a meteor shower? Meteor showers occur when the Earth moves through trails of debris left behind by comets or asteroids every time they come close to the sun. These fragments collide with the Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds of up to 43 miles (70km) per second, producing streaks of light as they vaporise. We call these meteors or shooting stars. The Eta …

How to Watch the 2026 Lyrids Meteor Shower at Its Peak

How to Watch the 2026 Lyrids Meteor Shower at Its Peak

Published by skeptic

In mid-April, astronomy enthusiasts will be able to enjoy one of the classic celestial spectacles. The meteor shower known as the Lyrids will illuminate the sky, especially in the northern hemisphere, and anyone will be able to see it with the naked eye, weather permitting—if they know where to look. The Lyrids began to appear as early as April 14, but their activity peaks between the night of April 21 and the early morning of April 22, according to NASA. During those hours, the shower will show 15 to 20 meteors per hour under dark skies. The shower gets its name because the meteors appear to emerge from the constellation Lyra. Locating the radiant is simple if you use an astronomical mapping app: Just find Vega, the fifth brightest star in the sky, surpassed only by Sirius, Canopus, Alpha Centauri A, and Arcturus. Once you locate it, look around it; the luminous traces of the Lyrids will seem to be projected from that point due to a perspective effect. Keep in mind that it takes …

How to spot the Lyrid meteor shower tonight

How to spot the Lyrid meteor shower tonight

Published by skeptic

The Lyrid meteor shower streaks through the sky Adventure_Photo/Getty Images The Lyrid meteor shower hits its peak on the evening of 22 April, or early hours of the 23rd, but you can look for them any time between the 16th and 25th. New Scientist‘s stargazing companion will talk you through what to look for. You can find the audio below or in the podcast episode feed for The world, the universe and us. Meteors are caused by high-speed debris from space hitting Earth’s atmosphere. These tiny grains of dust or rock enter the atmosphere at such speeds that the friction between them and the air makes them burn up, producing a flash that moves across the sky.  As Earth makes its yearly journey around the sun, it passes through a series of clouds of dust and debris, left behind by comets or asteroids, causing an increase in the number of meteors we see. This is why the same meteor showers happen at similar times each year. The Lyrids meteor shower is caused by the …

April skygazing: An early micromoon, comet flyby, and the Lyrid meteor shower

April skygazing: An early micromoon, comet flyby, and the Lyrid meteor shower

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. April 1 Full Pink Moon April 17 Best Chance to See Comet C/2025 R3 April 19 The Moon, Venus, and Pleiades Conjunction April 22 Lyrid Meteor Shower Predicted Peak Spring has sprung, the annual hour of sleep has been stolen from us, and the days are getting longer.  But don’t fear, skygazers, there are still enough celestial sights to see this month to keep you happy. They include an early full moon, a meteor shower known for generating unexpected spectacles, and a lovely conjunction of the moon and one of our cosmic neighbors. Also, there’s a comet to see! Onwards!  April 1: Full Pink Moon A full moon on the first day of the month! As far as we know, there’s no name for this, but it doesn’t matter, because April’s moon is gifted with the most poetic of names anyway. It’s the Pink Moon, making April the best month of the year for fans of Nick Drake, Édith …

A meteor exploded over Ohio and Pennsylvania

A meteor exploded over Ohio and Pennsylvania

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Residents across northeastern Ohio received a rude—or at least extremely unexpected—wake-up call this morning. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the loud boom experienced across the region around 9 a.m. EDT on March 17 was most likely the result of a meteor disintegrating as it sped through Earth’s atmosphere. While multiple videos recorded as far away as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, show a bright light streaking across the sky, initial indicators suggested something completely different. Speaking with Cleveland.com, NWS meteorologist Brian Mitchell explained a satellite picture taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) flagged the visible flash traveling north towards Lake Erie as potential lightning. Given a lack of thunderstorms in the area, a cosmic visitor is more likely the culprit. NOAA’s GLM image tracked a bright flash of light that initially appeared to be lightning. Credit: NOAA Although known as the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), NOAA’s satellite isn’t only used to document its namesake weather phenomenon. With …

A meteor soared across Europe—and possibly hit a house

A meteor soared across Europe—and possibly hit a house

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The European Space Agency (ESA) is investigating a bright fireball that lit up the early evening sky across at least five countries on March 8th. At around 5:55 p.m. local time, residents across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands spotted a glowing object soaring across the sky for an estimated six seconds before disintegrating into multiple fragments. In the German town of Güls—around 50 miles west of Frankfurt—at least one house was damaged by debris . Although more information is needed, the ESA’s Planetary Defense team believes the object was a meteor measuring at least a few feet in diameter. And while astronomers stressed there isn’t much to fear, there is no denying it: such events aren’t exactly rare. “Objects in this size range strike Earth from once every few weeks to once every few years,” the ESA explained. Fireball over Europe, 8 March 2026 The planet is bombarded by thousands of tiny space rocks every day, but …

Lunar asteroid strike in 2032 could trigger moonquakes and meteor storms on Earth

Lunar asteroid strike in 2032 could trigger moonquakes and meteor storms on Earth

Published by Jenni Sidey

Late in 2024, astronomers spotted a new near-Earth asteroid named 2024 YR4. By mid-2025, its improved orbit tracking raised an unusual possibility: the space rock could hit the Moon on Dec. 22, 2032, with about a 4% chance. That scenario is the focus of a new arXiv preprint led by Yifan He of Tsinghua University and co-authors. Their work asks a simple question with big consequences. If a 60-meter asteroid slams into the Moon, what would you see, what would instruments record, and what risks would follow for Earth’s space hardware? The team describes 2024 YR4 as an Apollo-class asteroid whose path crosses both Earth’s and the Moon’s orbits. In their modeling, an impact would occur at about 14.1 kilometers per second. That speed would turn a single strike into a physics experiment that unfolds in seconds, then echoes for years. A low-odds collision with a high-energy punch In the study, the asteroid’s kinetic energy at impact reaches about 3 × 10^16 joules. The authors compare that to roughly 6.5 megatons of TNT. On the …

2026’s new emoji could include a pickle and a meteor

2026’s new emoji could include a pickle and a meteor

Published by skeptic

We’ve gotten a look at what 2026’s new emoji could be and the big additions? A pickle and a meteor. The good folks at Emojipedia spotted that Unicode had quietly updated its archives with nine proposed new emoji concepts for September 2026’s Emoji 18.0. Here’s the full list of proposed additions, as described by Emojipedia: Mashable Trend Report A smiley face with squinting eyes A leftward thumb sign gesture A rightward thumb sign gesture A monarch butterfly (as opposed to the non-specifying 🦋) A pickle (as opposed to a 🥒 Cucumber) A lighthouse A meteor (as opposed to a ☄️ Comet) An eraser, for removing pencil markings from paper A net with a handle, like those used to catch bugs In my opinion, the pickle and meteor are the big additions here. A pickle is distinct from a cucumber and could come in handy. And, well, with the way things have been going, a crashing meteor emoji could prove useful, too. Here’s what the proposed new emoji look like. Credit: Unicode/Emojipedia To be clear, just …