{"id":401062,"date":"2026-04-20T03:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/401062\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T03:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:05:11","slug":"the-lyrid-meteor-shower-is-about-to-peak-with-better-views-than-usual-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/401062\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lyrid Meteor Shower Is About to Peak, With Better Views Than Usual : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2013 This year’s Lyrid meteor shower<\/a> is getting a boost thanks to a dim crescent moon.<\/p>\n

Skywatchers could see 10 to 20 shooting stars<\/a> per hour soar across the spring sky, according to NASA<\/a>, when the fiery display peaks Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

The show will be visible across the globe, but views will be best<\/a> in the Northern Hemisphere. And there’s no risk of the crescent moon photobombing the Lyrid shower. It’ll set before the fun starts.<\/p>\n

Meteor showers<\/a> happen when the Earth plows through debris trails left behind by space rocks.<\/p>\n

Those stray bits get hot as they enter the atmosphere, producing fiery streaks that are also known as shooting stars.<\/p>\n

\"AThe Lyrid meteor shower<\/a> in 2012, captured by astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station. (NASA\/JSC\/D. Pettit<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Contrary to the name, most meteor showers are actually debris from comets. The Lyrids are the leftovers from an icy ball called comet Thatcher.<\/p>\n

“We only get to see the actual comet once every 415 years,” said Maria Valdes, who studies meteorites and works at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.<\/p>\n

“But we pass through the grains that have been left in its wake every year around the same time.”<\/p>\n

\"YouTube frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n

A handful of random meteors are visible on any given night. At predictable times throughout the year, enough can be seen at once to make a more exciting spectacle.<\/p>\n

The Lyrids are one of the oldest recorded meteor showers, with reported sightings dating back over 2,500 years.<\/p>\n

To see the Lyrids, go outside after midnight and venture away from tall buildings and city lights.<\/p>\n

It’ll take at least 15 to 30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the nighttime sky, and remember to resist looking at your phone.<\/p>\n

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Bring lawn chairs or a sleeping bag and be patient until the meteors reveal themselves. They’ll appear to come from the constellation Lyra in the northeastern sky.<\/p>\n

Related: A Newly Discovered Comet May Soon Appear Bright in Our Skies<\/a><\/p>\n

“A meteor looks like a trail of light in the sky,” said astronomer Lisa Will with San Diego City College.<\/p>\n

“What you tend to detect is the motion against the background.”<\/p>\n

The next major shower is soon approaching in early May: the Eta Aquarids, debris from Halley’s comet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2013 This year’s Lyrid meteor shower is getting a boost thanks to a dim crescent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,141],"class_list":{"0":"post-401062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}