The Draconid meteor shower will peak in the Northern Hemisphere in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Oct. 8, according to NASA. Unlike many meteor showers, more Draconids are likely to fly in the evening hours than in the morning hours after midnight, making the best viewing time from the evening of Monday, Oct. 7 through early morning Tuesday. This meteor shower is usually a sleeper, but it has the potential for spectacular displays during extra-active years.
Meteors are leftover particles from comets and broken asteroids that collide with Earth's atmosphere, causing them to burn up and create bright streaks in the sky. The Draconid meteor shower is linked to the Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, with its periodic orbit of 6.6 years leading to occasional 'meteor storms'. These storms happened in 1933 and 1946, with increased activity observed in several years, hinting at the comet’s influence on meteor activity.
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