The Lyrid meteor shower, one of the oldest known to man, is arguably the best meteor shower of springtime, and it peaks this week, making now one of the best chances of seeing a shooting star in springtime.

The Lyrid meteor shower 2026 is active on 15–25 April, with the best views to be had on the nights of 21/22 and 22/23 April.

Lyrids are ‘shooting stars’ in the night sky. They’re actually pieces of dust and debris from comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, burning up as they enter Earth’s atmosphere.

During the peak nights, up to 18 meteors could theoretically be expected to be seen an hour, although this is what would be seen under perfect conditions.

The radiant – the part of the sky from which Lyrids appear to originate – is between the constellations Lyra and Hercules (see chart above).

Although seemingly empty, the space between the planets of our Solar System is teeming with vast numbers of meteoroids.

These are small pieces of rock and dust largely originating from comets and asteroids but also, to a lesser extent, from the terrestrial planets and rocky satellites.

A small number even originate from outside our Solar System: so-called interstellar dust.

Meteors are produced when particles of interstellar dust enter Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds (ranging from around 11km to 72km per second) causing them to burn up and leave a bright momentary streak across the sky.

Earth encounters approximately 40,000 tonnes of extraterrestrial dust every year. 

Although this may sound like a lot, on a typical night it means just a few meteors might be seen per hour streaking randomly across the sky. These are called sporadic meteors.

At certain times of the year these numbers can increase to around 100 meteors an hour in events called meteor showers, such as the Lyrid, as Earth ploughs through denser streams of particles on its orbit around the Sun.