Meteor shower tonight, Don't miss it

It’s April 21^st 2020 and today is an interesting day for any astronomy enthusiasts all around the globe. If you don’t know what is going to happen today then you may thank me later for informing. An amazing cosmic light shower also known as the Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight.

Picture courtesy: NASA

 This is not something totally new to earth, The Lyrid meteor shower occurs every year between April 16 to April 26 (That is why they are also known as April Lyrids) and this year according to NASA the shower will peak tonight at 21^st of April starting from 10 pm. The reason of this meteor shower being special this year is because of new moon on the very next day so the cosmic lights would be widely visible and it is also special due to the social distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though people are far from each other they could enjoy this spectacular view of what they locally recognize as shooting stars.

Your grandparents may say that these are stars falling down to earth and that is why a meteor shower is commonly referred as ‘Shooting stars’. Keeping your grandparents’ imaginary tales aside the phenomenon of meteor shower occurs when debris of collapsed comets or dust particles and pieces of blown apart asteroids falling down to earth evaporate in Earth’s atmosphere due to heat produced with its friction with air. The extreme heat makes the falling meteor look like a fireball for a split second and disappears as the meteor totally evaporates.

Talking more about Lyrid meteor shower it was named after the constellation Lyra. You can read more about it in its Wikipedia page. The meteor shower would be visible throughout northern hemisphere. Click here  to check tonight’s weather if it is favorable in your area to observe the meteor shower.

Composite image of Lyrid and non Lyrid meteors as seen from the Mexican sky
Picture courtesy:Danielle Moser/NASA/MSFC

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         Siddhant Silwal