Lyrid Meteor Pictures: Fireball Boom, Auroras Enliven Shower

Oregon Visitor

Photograph by Robin Loznak, Zuma Press

A Lyrid meteor, or shooting star, darts above a barn in rural Oregon on Saturday.

"Typical hourly rates for the Lyrids can run between 10 and 20 meteors," Samra said. "However, rates as high as a hundred meteors per hour are not uncommon."

Published April 23, 2012

Double Feature

Photograph courtesy Shawn Stockman-Malone

Streaking over "a persistent glowing arc low on the horizon," a Lyrid meteor enlivens an aurora over Marquette, Michigan, in the predawn hours of Sunday, according to photographer Shawn Malone, writing on Spaceweather.com.

As with most other annual meteor showers, the Lyrids are thought to be caused by sand grain-size debris left over from a passing comet.

When a comet gets close to the sun, its ices vaporize, releasing dust grains and sometimes small lumps of rock that settle into orbit around the sun.

(Related: "New Meteor Shower Discovered; May Uncover New Comet.")

Published April 23, 2012

Lucky Break

Photograph by Yuichi Takasaka, TWAN

For most of Saturday night, clouds hid the Lyrid meteor shower from Yuichi Takasaka in Lumby, Canada. But "luckily it went clear after a while and we could see some Lyrids and also very faint auroras on the northern horizon!" Takasaka wrote to the World at Night (TWAN) website for night-sky photographers.

The Lyrids are thought to originate from comet Thatcher, whose 416-year orbit is nearly perpendicular to the plane of the solar system. That means the comet's debris trail doesn't experience many gravitational disturbances from planets, asteroids, and other comets.

Astronomers believe this stable stream of debris may be the reason the Lyrids have been a reliable sky show for centuries.

(Also see "Perseid Pictures: Meteor Shower Seen From Space, Earth.")

Published April 23, 2012

Late, Late Show

Photograph courtesy Jimmy Westlake

Like a shining arrow aimed at Stagecoach, Colorado, a Lyrid meteor seemingly streaks away from the bright star Vega in a 30-second exposure taken in the wee hours of Sunday.

The Lyrids appear to radiate from Vega, which makes them relatively easy to spot. "Vega can be spotted in even the heaviest of light-polluted cities," astronomer Samra said.

(Related: "Meteors Delivered Gold to Baby Earth, New Study Hints.")

Published April 23, 2012

Into the Mist

Photograph by Yuichi Takasaka, TWAN

A lyrid meteor flashes over an acid green auroral cloud layer in Lumby, Canada, Saturday night.

"Like clockwork every year in April, the Earth passes through the particle stream of [comet Thatcher], which last approached the sun in 1861," Samra said.

"These particles hit our atmosphere while traveling at high speeds and burn up, leaving behind streaks of light"-what we see as meteors.

(See "Space Pictures This Week: Cosmic Pinwheel, Mountain Meteor [December 2, 2011]".)

Published April 23, 2012

Tasty

Photograph courtesy Mark Nolan

A Lyrid meteor makes cuts through the watermelon hues of an aurora over Culdaff Beach in Ireland early Sunday.

Auroras occur when large numbers of charged particles from the sun encounter Earth's magnetic shield. Most of these particles get corralled toward the Poles, where they slam into atmospheric gases such as nitrogen and oxygen, releasing energy visible as colored light.

(See "Aurora Pictures: Earth-Shield Cracks Spur Surprises.")

Published April 23, 2012