Look up Colorado, and you may witness the birth of a new meteor shower late Friday night. That鈥檚 when the Earth passes through the orbit of a comet named Linear.
The shower鈥檚 name : Camelopardalids. It鈥檚 named after the giraffe constellation.
According to :
The word originates from Latin: kam膿los (or camel) and pardalis (or leopard). The result is a camel-leopard creature with a long neck and lots of spots -- which we affectionately know as the giraffe. Camelopardalis, a large and dim constellation in the northern sky, is named for its many faint stars that resemble the spots of a giraffe.
鈥淚n my whole life I have never seen a new meteor shower. We have the old, dependable meteor shows. Every August 11 and 12, for instance, we get the Perseid Meteor Shower. And now, all of a sudden, there鈥檚 the chance of a brand new meteor shower and nobody knows how big it might be,鈥� said Doug Duncan, director of
Since it鈥檚 never been seen before, astronomers are excited to see just how many meteors there will be.
鈥淪o whether there鈥檚 thousands of them, hundreds of them, dozens of them, millions of them nobody really knows which is why it鈥檚 exciting to go out and see what we are going to be hit by,鈥� said Duncan.
The comet was discovered in 2004, but this will be the first time Earth will encounter its debris field of tiny bits of ice and rock -- some no larger than the size of a pea, said Duncan.
The best time to is from midnight Friday into early morning Saturday because that鈥檚 when the Earth鈥檚 Western Hemisphere rotates toward the sun.
At that time Duncan said to look to the northern sky just to the right of the big dipper.
And of course, get away from city lights.
If weather has you down, fear not. .
