Orionid Meteor Shower:
The Orionid meteor shower is expected to rain down its greatest number of meteors on the mornings of October 21 and 22.
- Orionid meteor shower is an annual phenomenon that lights up the night sky every October.
- It is produced when Earth passes through the debris left behind by Halley’s Comet, officially known as 1P/Halley.
- This comet, which orbits the sun approximately every 76 years, expels dust particles from its nucleus, creating a trail of debris in its path.
- Each year, our planet intercepts this path in late October, resulting in the Orionid meteor shower.
- Halley’s Comet, measuring about five by nine miles in size, loses between three to ten feet of material on each passage through the inner solar system.
- The Orionids are viewable in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres during the hours after midnight.
