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Oldest recorded meteor shower to put on pre-dawn light show
The Guardian
|April 14, 2025
Specks of light from the oldest recorded meteor shower could appear in the skies above the UK from this week as the Earth passes through the debris of a comet.
The Lyrid meteor shower is caused by C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), a comet that is "falling apart as it goes" according to Dr Ed Bloomer, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Debris from the comet burns up in the Earth's atmosphere creating a meteor shower in the same part of the sky each year.
The Lyrids get their name because they appear to come from near the constellation of Lyra, the harp.
This story is from the April 14, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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