Star gazers are getting a special treat on the longest night of the year with an opportunity to witness the last meteor shower of 2021.
The winter solstice is bringing us extra sparkle Tuesday night with the celestial peak of the Ursid meteor shower. The annual event runs from about December 17 to 26 every year, peaking around the winter solstice.
Wolfgang Kerzendorf, a professor of astronomy at Michigan State University, says as the Earth rotates around the sun, it’s also encountering rocks and sand left over in space from when the solar system first formed. This phenomenon creates the meteor showers we see from Earth.
“So essentially every year when we go through these rocks again, we can say they're hitting the atmosphere and we can see this meteorite spectacle," he said. Kerzendorf says at around 1 a.m. early Wednesday morning, spectators will be able to see about 10 meteors an hour.
"It's a very small window where we see like, little grains of sand and things a little bit bigger hitting the atmosphere, and like they’re getting so fast—so the friction from the air, eats them up and makes them glow at specific rates," he added.
This year, Kerzendorf says to expect a bright moon in the sky during the Ursid peak. He recommends going to an area where city lights are less visible to get the best look.