2022 Orionid Meteor Shower Will Peak During the Predawn Hours on Friday: Here’s How to Watch This Cosmic Spectacle

The Orionid meteor shower will peak from Thursday night, October 20, to early Friday morning, October 21. According to NASA, colorful streaks and bursting fireballs make this year's most beautiful meteors streak through Earth's atmosphere at 148,000 miles per hour. Such speed causes meteors to burn up and leave glowing trails within seconds, with some exploding in color.

The spectacular shooting stars will be visible in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres from midnight to dawn as long as the night sky is clear from bad weather and light pollution.

(Photo: IBRAHIM CHALHOUB/AFP via Getty Images)
Meteors of the Orionid meteor shower streak as they crossed through the milky way in the mountainous area of Tannourine in northern Lebanon on October 3, 2021.

Origins of Orionid Meteor Shower

Meteors look like streaks of light in the night sky and are popularly known as "shooting stars" or "falling stars," even though they are not real stars as they are only grains of dust gliding for thousands of years between space and planets. It creates a flaming flash when one of them impacts the atmosphere.

The Orionids meteor shower happens when Earth passes through the debris of Halley's Comet that burns upon entry into the planet's atmosphere, per Time and Date.

Earth passes through the comet's debris twice a year, once in May and then again in October. This week's meteor shower is the second one caused by the comet, with the first one being the Eta Aquarids meteor shower in May.

Each peak of the meteor shower occurs when Earth moves through the densest part of the debris trail of Hailey's comet, Yahoo! reports. It is expected that about 15 shooting stars per hour will be observed during the peak.

The American Meteor Society predicts that the Orionid meteor shower will last for weeks until November 22, which means those who miss the peak time will still have the chance to spot the shooting stars in the coming weeks.

How to Watch the Orionid Meteor Shower

The best time to observe the spectacular light show is between midnight and the first light of dawn, as reported by Space.com. This is when meteors are abundant and brighter than the ones seen earlier in the evening.

This is because meteoroids move in all directions in space and speed at 18.5 miles per second (29.8kps) as Earth also moves around the Sun in one direction. That speed is a little slower in the evening, but it is reversed in the early hours of the morning.

The slimmer Moon in the night sky has also allowed the meteor shower to become more visible on Thursday night and the pre-dawn hours of Friday, according to EarthSky.

The Orionids have already become visible earlier this week, but the Moon obscures its view. But the Moon will be a slim recent on October 21 when the meteor shower will peak so that stargazers will enjoy this year's Orionid meteor shower.