JACKSON, Wyo. — The Lyrid meteor shower is expected to peak in night skies on Tuesday night going into Wednesday morning, according to the American Meteor Society.
The Lyrid meteor shower is among the oldest known meteor showers, according to NASA. It’s been observed for 2,700 years, dating back to a 687 B.C. sighting recorded in China.
The name Lyrid comes from Lyra, from “lyre” or “harp,” the name of the constellation from which the meteors appear to stream. Around this time of year, Lyra is on the eastern sky and low to the horizon, but as the night progresses it will move higher and higher.
The National Weather Service is calling for scattered showers and clouds tonight, so visibility could be an issue. The shower is expected to be active through the end of the month, so a better weather window might open up.
In a 2023 interview about the Lyrids with Samuel Singer, founder and executive director of Wyoming Stargazing, he explained what skywatchers could expect to see during this part of April.
“We call them meteor showers, but it’s more like meteor trickles,” Singer said. “A burst can be approximately 100 an hour, but we will most likely see one meteor every few minutes, at best.”
Meteor showers are all about where the debris fields are out in space; when the Earth’s orbit crosses a debris field, it’s a meteor shower. Each debris field is left over by a comet.
“Most meteors (the momentary flash of light) that we see are caused by particles of rock no bigger than a coarse grain of salt,” Singer said. “The larger streaks of light, which we call bolides, that seem to go a long way across the sky are caused by the walnut or grape sized particles of rock.”
The comet associated with the Lyrid shower is Comet Thatcher, which was discovered by Alfred Thatcher on April 5, 1861. While Singer noted that no one has seen the comet since, because it has such a long orbit around the sun, it will be close enough to see again in 2283. The Lyrid meteor shower is the only shower associated with the Comet Thatcher.
The Lyrid shower is something Singer recommended watching unassisted, without the use of binoculars or scopes, which can limit the view of the night sky.
Singer mentioned that every 60 years, there seems to be an outburst of meteors due to how the earth’s gravitational field reshapes the debris field of a comet, so the next really spectacular Lyrid meteor shower is expected in 2042.
