The Annual ‘Cosmic Glitter’ Event Returns Tonight

If you were playing on a Nintendo Entertainment System, feeling devastated over the Challenger space shuttle tragedy, going to see Aliens one more time or hyped about the chance of seeing Halley’s Comet, you were a part of living history that many may not realize was left written amongst the stars.

The Eta Aquarids are a metor shower that arrives every May. The debris field left from the famous comet is actually tiny flecks left behind in outer space from its previous pathways forged around the sun. These meteoroids released into space are the fragments of a comet’s nucleus. Think of it as “cosmic glitter” or shiny space garbage”, as the debris is tiny and not much larger than a speck of sand.

Stargazers should look for the Eta Aquarids to reach its peak tonight and into the early morning hours on Wednesday. 

Viewers in the Southwest are slated for the best show, as the rest of the country and Canada are looking at unfavorable viewing conditions, thanks to the weather. The numbers of shooting stars tend to reach a maximum of about 10-30 per hour when conditions are clear and dark in a Southeastern direction, near the border of the Aquarius constellation.

Halley's Comet won't be directly visible again until 2061 (it appears once every 75 years), so there’s no use in waiting around for it to make another trip around the sun. Instead, look up into the sky late and realize that we are not the only ones on a journey through time and space that reside in this galaxy.