A meteor shower is heading our way – or will it be a meteor storm?

A meteor shower lighting up the sky when space dust and debris burns up in the atmosphere, amid Draconid meteor shower 2023 — Meteors light up the sky when space dust and debris burns up in the atmosphere (Picture: Getty)

The year’s supermoons may be over, but our night sky still promises plenty of spectacles to come – not least courtesy of this week’s Draconid meteor shower.

And unlike many of the year’s other meteor showers, one big plus for the Draconids is the fact these brilliant bursts of light are best seen in the evening, just after nightfall, rather than in the early hours.

The shower occurs as Earth passes through the debris left behind by the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, discovered by Michel Giacobini in 1900. The comet is a small one, only 1.24 miles wide, and orbits the Sun once every 6.6 years.

And while the meteor shower is occasionally called the Giacobinids, its most common name has a more stellar origin.

‘The Draconids meteor shower is named after the constellation of Draco the dragon,’ says Anna Gammon-Ross, astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich. ‘This is because, although meteors can be seen all over the sky, they all appear to emerge or radiate from a single point that lies within this constellation.

‘The Draconids are caused when debris from the comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Most of this debris will burn up at a height of around 50 miles above the ground, so this is not a dangerous event.’

The Perseids meteor shower, which takes place in August, is particularly active (Picture: Getty)

Meteor showers, or shooting stars, can be caused by particles as small as a grain of sand burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. Any larger debris that survives the fiery passage and hits the ground becomes known as a meteorite.

And while the Draconid meteor shower is typically not the busiest of the year, on occasion, it has been the cause of a meteor storm, in which a thousand or more meteors can be seen in one location by one observer.

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How to watch the Draconid meteor shower 2023 tonight

‘The meteor shower is visible from Friday, October 6 to Tuesday, October 10 this year,’ says Ms Gammon-Ross.

‘The best time will be from around 8pm on Sunday, October 8. At this time, that radiant point within Draco will be in the northwest of the sky, slowly getting lower in the sky until sunrise.

‘For the best chances to spot them, find a dark area of clear sky and allow around 20 minutes to let your eyes adapt to the dark.