Pieces of a famous comet will fall to Earth this weekend
This weekend, look up at night to see bits of Halley's Comet falling through Earth's atmosphere.
The Orionid meteor shower is set to peak in the overnight hours through the weekend, according to Sky & Telescope, and if you're in a dark part of the world, you should have a pretty good shot at seeing at least a few of the shooting stars.
The Orionids aren't usually an incredible annual meteor shower, but this year's could be pretty special thanks to the fact that there will be no moonlight to blot out the streaking meteors.
"Look near Orion's club in the hours before dawn and you may see up to 10 to 15 meteors per hour," NASA said in a skywatching video.
If you want to check out the meteor shower for yourself, try to get to a dark area, away from light pollution, and let your eyes adjust for about 30 minutes.
It's best to have a good view of the constellation Orion, where many of the meteors will emanate from. But more than anything, it's important to get as wide a view of the sky as possible, giving yourself a better chance to catch any dim meteors around your field of vision.
Be sure to have patience when you're looking up for meteors. A rate of 10 to 15 or even 20 meteors per hour isn't very high, so go into your viewing expecting to hang around outside for a few hours while looking to the sky for the occasional shooting star.
The Orionids grace the skies each year around this time when the Earth passes through the field of debris left behind by Halley's Comet.
The comet itself hasn't been visible from Earth with the naked eye since 1986, yet every year we still pass through its trail of sloughed off material. Another meteor shower, the Eta Aquarids also occurs when Earth passes through Halley's debris field.
If you happen to be around and looking to the sky in 2061, however, you'll likely get a chance to see Halley's Comet itself when it makes its next relatively close pass with Earth that year.
While scientists have clocked annual meteor showers for years, it's not always easy to predict the intensity of any given event.
Sometimes the Earth will pass through a heavier field of debris than during other years, increasing the rate of meteors seen, and sometimes the debris is lighter.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
