A meteor shower will peak this weekend giving a display of up to 50 'shooting stars' an hour on Saturday morning over UK skies. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will be busiest between 12am and 6am on Saturday morning.
The Eta Aquarids is an annual meteor shower that occurs between late April and mid-May each year, with the peak usually occurring around May 5 or 6. The meteor shower is associated with Halley's Comet, which orbits the sun once every 76 years.
When Earth passes through the trail of debris left by Halley's Comet, the debris enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up, creating the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. The meteor shower appears to radiate from the constellation Aquarius, and can be seen in both the northern and southern hemispheres, although it is generally more visible in the southern hemisphere.
