The Delta Aquariids shower should become visible over the weekend, even if the meteor showers won’t peak until the end of the month or later.
The summer meteor shower season begins with the Delta Aquariids shower. According to Royal Observatory Greenwich, it should become visible on July 12 and peak around July 30.
When the Earth travels through a comet’s debris stream, a meteor shower happens. The comet that produced the shower for the Delta Aquariids has been contested, but Comet 96P/Machholz, a sungrazer, is currently believed to be the culprit.
According to the Royal Observatory, it is around four miles across and completes one orbit of the sun in slightly over five years.
The debris stream that produces the Delta Aquariid meteor shower is created when the comet’s ice vaporizes and releases microscopic rock and dust particles as it is heated by the sun throughout its orbit.
