Meteor Shower Peaks in Activity Tonight

The Orionid meteor shower, which will reach its peak intensity during the night of October 21, can provide up to 15 visible meteors per hour in the sky. This was reported by the press service of the Moscow Planetarium to TASS.

The Orionids are annual autumn meteor showers of moderate intensity. These meteors are characterized by relatively fast white meteors that leave trails. Sometimes, red, blue-green, yellow, and orange meteors are also seen among them.

“Astronomers expect to see up to 15 meteors per hour... the meteor shower is clearly visible in both hemispheres,” the experts explained.

The Orionids get their name from the constellation Orion, which contains the radiant point of the meteor shower—the point from which the meteors appear to emanate. In mid-latitudes, the best time to observe the Orionids is from midnight until dawn when the Orion constellation is sufficiently high above the horizon.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth, moving along its orbit around the Sun, encounters a group of meteoroids. As these meteoroids penetrate the Earth's atmosphere, they burn up and leave trails reminiscent of “falling stars,” which can be visible for several seconds in the sky.