The “Lyrids” come on Saturday – everything you want to know about the night of the shooting stars

The shooting star season 2023 has begun! The Lyrid meteors have been visible in the sky since April 14. They each mark the end of the “shooting star dry period” between January and April. In the night from Saturday April 22 to Sunday, the meteor shower will reach its peak.

Most shooting stars are expected around 03:00: up to 20 shooting stars per hour can then be observed. But also before that, for example in the night from Friday to Saturday, the chance of shooting stars is high.

In some years, the Lyrids meteor shower was disproportionately more active. For example, in 1982 there was an “outburst” where up to 90 meteors per hour were recorded. According to EarthSky, the next outlier is not expected until 2042.

Last year, the moon was a bummer during the Lyrid showers; the moon was up to 70 percent full and therefore quite bright and disturbing. This year we are more fortunate: the crescent moon is still small and sets half an hour before midnight.

This year, the weather could be the bogeyman: things look bad for the weekend. On Saturday, it is mainly the second half of the day that will provide more clouds and probably also precipitation. However, with a bit of luck it can occasionally clear up at night.

The Lyrids appear around this time each year when Earth orbits past the debris of Comet Thatcher. “Thatcher” was discovered in April 1861 when it was close to Earth’s orbit. The comet orbits the sun, but it takes exactly 417 years to make a full orbit – so it will be a long time before we can see it from Earth again. Since the Lyrids are formed from cometary debris, “Thatcher” is also referred to as their “mother body”.

Shooting Star Showers take their name from the constellation they are in. The point in the night sky from which a meteor shower appears to begin is called the radiant. For example, the radiant for the Perseids is in the constellation Perseus.

The Lyrids radiate in the constellation Lyra, also called “Lyra” in Latin. This year, around midnight, the radiant Lyrids will rise in the northeast. By the way, one of the brightest stars in the sky also belongs to the constellation Lyre: «Vega».

Shooting stars are usually small particles, often even smaller than a grain of sand. However, because they hit the earth’s atmosphere at an extremely high speed of up to 70 kilometers per second (!), the air is ionized (electrically charged) when burned. The glow that is created is called a meteor. This is not to be confused with the meteoroid – often called “meteor” – the particle that causes the shooting star.

Last but not least, there are the meteorites: this is what the parts (usually larger “particles”) are called that hit the earth from the atmosphere, but do not burn up completely when they hit the ground, but actually end up on the earth. (lacquer)