Watch the Skies

Shooting Stars: Annual Perseid Meteor Shower to Peak Aug. 11-12

By Wayne Smith

They may not attract as much attention as last month’s daylight fireball over New York City, but stargazers can still anticipate seeing some shooting stars with the upcoming Perseid meteor shower. Caused by Earth passing through trails of debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle, the shower has become famous over the centuries because of its consistent display of celestial fireworks.

A bright meteor leaves a trail of light amongst a sky full of stars. Silhouettes of trees frame the bottom of the image. — In this 30 second exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

“The Perseids is the best annual meteor shower for the casual stargazer,” said Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Not only is the shower rich in bright meteors and fireballs – No. 1 in fact – it also peaks in mid-August when the weather is still warm and comfortable. This year, the Perseid maximum will occur on the night of Aug. 11 and pre-dawn hours of Aug. 12. You’ll start seeing meteors from the shower around 11 p.m. local time and the rates will increase until dawn. If you miss the night of the 11th, you will also be able to see quite a few on the night of the 12th between those times.”

The best way to see the Perseids is to find the darkest possible sky and visit between midnight and dawn on the morning of Aug. 12. Allow about 45 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Lie on your back and look straight up. Avoid looking at cell phones or tablets because their bright screens ruin night vision and take your eyes off the sky.

Perseid meteors travel at the blistering speed of 132,000 mph – or 500 times faster than the fastest car in the world. At that speed, even a smidgen of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it collides with Earth’s atmosphere. Peak temperatures can exceed 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit as they speed across the sky. The Perseids pose no danger to people on the ground as practically all burn up 60 miles above our planet.

The first Perseid captured by NASA’s All Sky Meteor Camera Network was recorded at 9:48 p.m. EDT on July 23. The meteor – about as bright as the planet Jupiter, so not quite bright enough to be considered a fireball – was caused by a piece of Comet Swift-Tuttle about 5 millimeters in diameter entering the atmosphere over the Atlantic and burning up 66 miles above St. Cloud, Florida, just south of Orlando.

A bright meteor streaks across the dark night sky, leaving a trail of white light. — NASA’s All Sky Meteor Camera Network captured its first Perseid at 9:48 p.m. EDT on July 23.

Rare Fireball in New York, New York Not Perseids

It wasn’t part of the Perseids, but a rare daylight fireball streaked across the sky over New York City at 11:15 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 16. The event gained national attention and was reported in media outlets across the U.S.

The fireball, defined as a meteor brighter than the planet Venus, is estimated to have soared over New York City before traversing a short path southwest and disintegrating about 31 miles above Mountainside, New Jersey. Cooke said the meteor was likely about 1 foot in diameter, which would have made the rock bright enough to see during the day. Seeing a meteor of this size is rarer than catching sight of the smaller particles a few millimeters in size typically seen in the night sky.

“To see one in the daytime over a populated area like New York is fairly rare,” Cooke said during an interview with ABC 7 in New York.

The Meteoroid Environments Office studies meteoroids in space so that NASA can protect our nation’s satellites, spacecraft and even astronauts aboard the International Space Station from these bits of tiny space debris.

For more skywatching highlights in April, check out Jet Propulsion Lab’s What’s Up series.

Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256.544.0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov

Delta Aquariid Meteor Shower Best Seen in Southern Hemisphere in Late July

Most casual skywatchers know the bright, busy Perseids meteor shower arrives in late July and peaks in mid-August. Fewer are likely to name-drop the Southern delta Aquariids, which overlap with the Perseids each summer and are typically outshone by their brighter counterparts, especially when the Moon washes out the Southern delta Aquariids.

This year, with the Southern delta Aquariids set to peak on the night of July 28, the underdog shower isn’t likely to deliver any surprises. Unless you’re below the equator, it’ll take a keen eye to spot one.

Meteors from the Perseids meteor shower streak across the night sky above Sequoia National Forest. — Perseids meteors – which coincide with the Southern Delta Aquariids at the tail end of July – streak over Sequoia National Forest in this 2023 NASA file photo. (NASA/Preston Dyches)

“The Southern delta Aquariids have a very strong presence on meteor radars which can last for weeks,” said NASA astronomer Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Sadly, for most observers in the Northern Hemisphere, they’re difficult to spot with the naked eye, requiring the darkest possible skies.”

Meteor watchers – particularly those in the southern United States and points south – will be best served to check out the night sky July 28-29 before moonrise at 2 a.m.

During peak shower activity, under ideal viewing conditions with no Moon in the sky, casual watchers may see 2-5 meteors per hour, flashing into view at speeds of 25 miles per second. A small percentage of these may leave glowing, ionized gas trails that linger visibly for a second or two after the meteor has passed. But most of the noticeable activity for the Southern delta Aquariids occurs over a couple of days around its peak, so don’t expect to see any past the end of July.

You can distinguish Southern delta Aquariids meteors from the Perseids by identifying their radiant, or the point in the sky from which a meteor appears to originate. Southern delta Aquariids appear to come from the direction of the constellation of Aquarius, hence the name. The Perseids’ radiant is in the constellation of Perseus in the northern sky.

Most astronomers agree the Southern delta Aquariids originate from Comet 96P/Machholz, which orbits the Sun every 5.3 years. Discovered by Donald Machholz in 1986, the comet’s nucleus is roughly 4 miles across – about half the size of the object suspected to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Researchers think debris causing the Southern delta Aquariid meteor shower was generated about 20,000 years ago.

Jonathan Deal / Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov / lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov

Six Planets to be Visible Before Dawn June 3

On June 3, stargazers will have an opportunity to look for six planets in Earth’s solar system. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will appear, from some dark, weather-free vantage points on Earth, to form a more-or-less straight line in the night sky – but it’ll take some optical assistance to see them all.

The alignment is a bit of an illusion, astronomers are quick to point out, given the widely varying elliptical path of each planet’s orbit around the Sun. But the uncommon arrangement could prove captivating indeed – if local weather does not interfere.

Trees are in the foreground as a sky full of stars shows the silhouette. — Astronomers and stargazers around the world should be on the lookout before dawn on June 3 for a “planetary parade,” a loose alignment of six of our neighboring worlds: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus – though the latter two will require high-powered binoculars or a telescope to spot. (NASA/Night Sky Network)

The planetary alignment is likely to be most visible 30-60 minutes before sunrise, looking east from a dark, high vantage point with minimal light pollution and an unobstructed view of the complete horizon.

“If you were somewhere out in space other than on Earth, these planets would not appear aligned at all,” said Dr. Alphonse Sterling, astrophysicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “It is not unusual to see two or three lined up, but to have six of them line up like this is uncommon.”

Mars and Saturn will be identifiable with the naked eye, and Mercury and Jupiter may also be spotted close to the horizon. To add Neptune and Uranus to the lineup, however, will require the use of a telescope or high-powered binoculars.

“You can see it basically anywhere there isn’t a ton of light pollution,” Sterling said. “You just need a clear view looking east. Jupiter and Mercury will be the last to join, rising just above the horizon. You won’t see six bright dots lined up. In the best circumstances, you can see Jupiter, Mercury and Mars and Saturn. You’ll need binoculars or a telescope for the others.”

Alignments of six planets happen infrequently, depending on the orbit and position of each planet as seen from Earth. Indeed, we may see an encore performance later this year. The same rough alignment of six planets could be visible in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 28 and again on Jan. 18, 2025.

That’s certainly more common than a full planetary alignment, in which all eight planets in our solar system would appear to fall into approximate formation on the same side of the Sun. Given all the factors involved, including the orbital plane, speed, and distance of each planet, estimates suggest it would take more than 300 billion years to happen just once.

That’s longer than the estimated lifetime of our parent star, so don’t wait up.

The planetary alignment is the latest skywatching event in a recent period rife with them. Space enthusiasts enjoyed a total solar eclipse April 8 and a rare sighting in May of the aurora borealis over parts of the continental United States – the result of an uncommonly large geomagnetic storm.

Eta Aquariids Outburst This Weekend – Next One in 2046

The eta Aquariid meteor shower should put on a spectacular sky show this year with meteor rates up to one per minute! The typical peak viewing time would normally be the night of May 4 into the morning of May 5. However, due to the outburst, May 2-6 could provide excellent skygazing opportunities.

According to Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, many of the shooting stars we see this year are actually caused by material from Halley’s Comet that is around 3,000 years old. As Earth runs into that debris, we can see streaks of light across the sky. When our planet moves through concentrated clumps of material, we can get a meteor outburst. The next time the eta Aquariids will outburst is about 20 years from now.

A sky full of falling meteors. — Grains of cosmic dust streaked through night skies in early May 2023. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through the debris streams left behind by periodic Comet Halley, the annual meteor shower is known as the Eta Aquarids. Credit: Petr Horalek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Explanation: Grains of cosmic dust streaked through night skies in early May. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through the debris streams left behind by periodic Comet Halley, the annual meteor shower is known as the eta Aquariids. In 2022, the eta Aquariids peak was visually hampered by May’s bright full Moon. But early morning hours surrounding last May’s shower of Halley dust were free of moonlight interference. In exposures recorded between April 28 and May 8 in 2022, this composited image shows nearly 90 eta Aquariid meteors streaking from the shower’s radiant in Aquarius over San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

To really top off this year’s event, the new Moon aligns with the peak nights, therefore there will be no light interference to obscure the fainter meteors. There’s only one catch with this shower in particular – the best viewing time is from 4 a.m. to dawn. You will be able to see the glowing in the early evening, as the constellation Aquarius does not rise until around 4 a.m. local time. Set the alarm, grab the coffee, and settle in for what should be a magnificent meteor shower experience.

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Enjoy the Warming Weather Under These 3 Upcoming Meteor Showers

Still basking in that post-eclipse celestial glow? We’ve got great news – there is plenty of reasons to look up again and we are here to share in the skywatching excitement as meteor showers top the upcoming headlines.

It’s been a quiet few months for meteors, but the Lyrid meteor shower peaks overnight April 21-22. Unfortunately, the Moon will be at greater than 90% waxing gibbous so a lot of light interference will outshine the fainter meteors. Even under perfect conditions – dark, away from city lights, open view of the sky – only a few meteors per hour are expected to be visible to the naked eye because of the bright Moon. For a dedicated observer, it may still be worth spotting members of one of the oldest known meteor showers – the Lyrids have been observed for 2,700 years!

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks during early May each year. These meteors are known for their speed, which can leave glowing “trains” (incandescent bits of debris in the wake of the meteor) which last for several seconds to minutes. This is expected to be an outburst year, exclaims Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Visual rates could be as high as one per minute in the Southern Hemisphere, with just slightly less in the Northern.” The moon will be a waning crescent during its peak overnight May 4-5, so there will not be much moonlight interference.

Cooke is most excited for the Perseid meteor shower in mid-August, “The Perseids are always a stunner and this year, there will be no moonlight to spoil the show.” During its peak overnight August 12-13, about 50 to 100 meteors per hour can be seen! Perseids are also known for their fireballs. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.

In this 30 second exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Happy skywatching!

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

When and How to Spot the ‘Devil Comet’

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is one of the brightest known periodic comets. It earned the nickname of “devil comet” in 2023 when an outburst caused the comet to have an asymmetrical appearance, like having horns. It comes around every 71 years and is currently getting brighter as it flies toward the Sun.

As spring approaches for northern skygazers, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is growing brighter. Currently visible with small telescopes and binoculars, the Halley-type comet could reach naked eye visibility in the coming weeks. Seen despite a foggy atmosphere, the comet's green coma and long tail hover near the horizon in this well-composed deep night skyscape from Revuca, Slovakia recorded on March 5. M31, also known as the Andromeda galaxy, and bright yellowish star Mirach, second brightest star in the constellation Andromeda, hang in the sky above the comet. The Andromeda galaxy is some 2.5 million light-years beyond the Milky Way. — As spring approaches for northern skygazers, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is growing brighter. Currently visible with small telescopes and binoculars, the Halley-type comet could reach naked eye visibility in the coming weeks. Seen despite a foggy atmosphere, the comet’s green coma and long tail hover near the horizon in this well-composed deep night skyscape from Revuca, Slovakia recorded on March 5. M31, also known as the Andromeda galaxy, and bright yellowish star Mirach, second brightest star in the constellation Andromeda, hang in the sky above the comet. The Andromeda galaxy is some 2.5 million light-years beyond the Milky Way.
**Image Credit & Copyright:** Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava

In the Northern Hemisphere, the comet is best viewed with binoculars or a small telescope – right after the Sun dips below the horizon, look West just beneath the Moon, and just right of Jupiter. An hour after sunset, the comet drops so low, it will be difficult to see without a perfectly clear view of the horizon. The comet then sets an hour later.

Sky chart showing the crescent Moon above Jupiter and Comet 12P in the western sky following sunset on April 10.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, encourages viewers to have more realistic expectations about what they might see. “Many images depict a bright comet with a long green tail,” Cooke said. “That’s not going to happen.”

By July, it will be too dim to view even with binoculars.

As for viewing this comet with the naked eye, it might be possible in the coming days, but by mid-April, it will be too close to the Sun and then growing fainter as it makes its way away from the Sun.

The brightest stars are a magnitude 1, the faintest are a magnitude 6. Comet 12P will peak around a magnitude 5 unless an outburst occurs.

However, Cooke warns that outbursts are unpredictable. “There have been minor outbursts roughly once a month but it’s impossible to predict them,” he said. “The last one was on Leap Day, Feb. 29.”

Will the comet be visible during the eclipse?

It is certainly a possibility. If Comet 12P remains around a magnitude 5, it would only be visible in binoculars during the few minutes of totality. Consider enjoying the main spectacle instead of using that time to locate Comet 12P and attempt to view it at another time.

For more skywatching highlights in April, check out Jet Propulsion Lab’s What’s Up series.

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

March’s Lunar Eclipse Before April’s Solar Spectacle

April’s solar eclipse has stolen the headlines for many months now, and rightfully so with millions of Americans in the path of totality.

But did you know there is also a lunar eclipse before the solar eclipse?

As the full moon rises during the late evening of March 24 into the early morning hours of March 25, it will travel through the Earth’s penumbra, or the faint outer part of its shadow. This is called a penumbral eclipse.

When the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow, it causes the Moon to look very unusual for a short period of time. This event is called a lunar eclipse, and it occurs roughly twice a year. Learn more about how lunar eclipses work in this video!
Credit: NASA Video

The lunar eclipse will be visible to all of North and South America. The Moon will dim very slightly over those few nighttime hours, which can make for an interesting timelapse, even if it can be difficult to notice by just a glance at the sky.

Happy skywatching!

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

View Nova Explosion, ‘New’ Star in Northern Crown

A star system, located 3,000 light-years away from Earth, is predicted to become visible to the unaided eye soon. This could be a once-in-a-lifetime viewing opportunity as the nova ouburst only occurs about every 80 years. T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, last exploded in 1946 and astronomers believe it will do so again between February and September 2024.

A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova. The red giant is a large sphere in shades of red, orange, and white, with the side facing the white dwarf the lightest shades. The white dwarf is hidden in a bright glow of white and yellows, which represent an accretion disk around the star. A stream of material, shown as a diffuse cloud of red, flows from the red giant to the white dwarf. The animation opens with the red giant on the right side of the screen, co-orbiting the white dwarf. When the red giant moves behind the white dwarf, a nova explosion on the white dwarf ignites, filling the screen with white light. After the light fades, a ball of ejected nova material is shown in pale orange. A small white spot remains after the fog of material clears, indicating that the white dwarf has survived the explosion.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The star system, normally magnitude +10, which is far too dim to see with the unaided eye, will jump to magnitude +2 during the event. This will be of similar brightness to the North Star, Polaris.

Once its brightness peaks, it should be visible to the unaided eye for several days and just over a week with binoculars before it dims again, possibly for another 80 years.

As we wait for the nova, become familiar with the constellation Corona Borealis, or the Northern Crown — a small, semicircular arc near Bootes and Hercules. This is where the outburst will appear as a ��new” bright star.

A conceptual image of how to find Hercules and his mighty globular clusters in the sky created using a planetarium software. Look up after sunset during summer months to find Hercules! Scan between Vega and Arcturus, near the distinct pattern of Corona Borealis. Once you find its stars, use binoculars or a telescope to hunt down the globular clusters M13 and M92. If you enjoy your views of these globular clusters, you’re in luck – look for another great globular, M3, in the nearby constellation of Boötes.
Credit: NASA

This recurring nova is only one of five in our galaxy. This happens because T CrB is a binary system with a white dwarf and red giant. The stars are close enough that as the red giant becomes unstable from its increasing temperature and pressure and begins ejecting its outer layers, the white dwarf collects that matter onto its surface. The shallow dense atmosphere of the white dwarf eventually heats enough to cause a runaway thermonuclear reaction – which produces the nova we see from Earth.

Follow @NASAUniverse for updates about the outburst.

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Mars, Venus Appear Very Close to Each Other this Month

February is a great month for the early rising skygazers. Venus has been bright in the morning sky all year, rising just before the Moon.

In the minutes before dawn this week, Venus will rise to the upper left of the waning crescent Moon and will be joined by Mars.

This graphic shows Venus, Earth and its Moon, and Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA

Over the coming weeks, Venus will shift towards Mars until they appear to merge into one another, just a half a degree apart, on Feb. 22.

To view this planetary illusion, you’ll need to find a place with a clear view of the western horizon – few to no tall trees or buildings.

For more skygazing opportunities, including observing spiral galaxy M81, check out the video below from Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s monthly “What’s Up” video series:

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

2024 Highlights: When & Where to Watch the Skies

If your New Year’s resolution included more skygazing, you’ll have many fantastic opportunities to view some showstopping astronomical events.

Kick off the year by watching the skies on Jan. 17 as the Moon pairs up with Jupiter, appearing high in the southwest, for two evenings. After a near year-long fade from the naked eye, Mars is also becoming brighter in our sky as the month progresses and will be visible low on the eastern horizon before sunrise.

Perhaps one of the most anticipated by scientists and enthusiasts is the total solar eclipse 2024 Total Eclipse – NASA Science on April 8, 2024. It will be the last total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States until 2044.

A view of the Eclipse 2008 — For a moment on August 1st, the daytime sky grew dark along the path of a total solar eclipse. While watching the geocentric celestial event from Mongolia, photographer Miloslav Druckmuller recorded multiple images with two separate cameras as the Moon blocked the bright solar disk and darkened the sky. This final composition consists of 55 frames ranging in exposure time from 1/125 to 8 seconds. See the photo here.
Credit: Miloslav Druckmuller (Brno University of Technology), Peter Aniol, Vojtech Rusin

As the sky darkens during the solar eclipse, several of the brightest stars and planets will become visible.

Bill Cooke, lead for the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will also be tracking Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. The comet will slowly brighten over the coming months and may be just barely visible to the naked eye by the time of the eclipse.

On December 4, 2023 periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks shared this telescopic field of view with Vega, alpha star of the northern constellation Lyra. Fifth brightest star in planet Earth’s night, Vega is some 25 light-years distant while the much fainter comet was about 21 light-minutes away. In recent months, outbursts have caused dramatic increases in brightness for Pons-Brooks though. Nicknamed the Devil Comet for its hornlike appearance, fans of interstellar spaceflight have also suggested the distorted shape of this large comet’s central coma looks like the Millenium Falcon. A Halley-type comet, 12P/Pons-Brooks last visited the inner Solar System in 1954. Its next perihelion passage or closest approach to the Sun will be April 21, 2024. That’s just two weeks after the April 8 total solar eclipse path crosses North America. But, highly inclined to the Solar System’s ecliptic plane, the orbit of periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will never cross the orbit of planet Earth. Credit: Dan Bartlett

“Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is an intrinsically bright Halley-type comet that underwent an outburst back in July. Pressure from sunlight (radiation pressure) has caused the gas and dust surround the comet to assume a horseshoe shape, which some observers say reminds them of a devil with horns. Spring will see two phenomena that would have terrified our ancestors – a solar eclipse turning day into night and a “devil” comet. Should be exciting!” he exclaims.

Cooke also shared his picks for the top three meteor showers in 2024:

1. Perseids in mid-August – The Perseid meteor shower is always a stunner and this year, there will be no moonlight to spoil the show.
2. Eta Aquariids in early May – This is an outburst year with visual rates as high as one per minute for observers in the Southern Hemisphere.
3. Geminids in mid-December – The number of bright meteors is expected to outshine the strong Moon interference.

This is not an exhaustive list, however. The New Year will also treat us to supermoons, lunar eclipses, planetary alignments, a new comet, and much more.