The biggest meteor shower of the year will peak on Thursday night bringing up to 200 shooting stars an hour to UK skies. The Leonid meteor shower will peak on Thursday night and early on Friday morning and this year's display will be up to 10 times more prolific than usual.
The Leonids happen as the Earth passes through debris in the tail of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.
According to American Meteor Society (AMS) experts Mikhail Maslov and Mikiya Sato we should pass through a stretch of the tail bringing up to 200 meteors an hour this year, on Thursday night and also on Friday night into Saturday.
Meteors associated with the Leonids are often bright. As comet Tempel-Tuttle travels around the Sun, it leaves tiny pieces of debris in its path - some as small as a grain of sand. These pieces enter our planet's atmosphere at speeds of up to 70 kilometres per second, vaporising and causing the streaks of light we all know as meteors.
This year, the shower is expected to appear overnight from November 17-18 between midnight and dawn.
According to Royal Museums Greenwich, skygazers can expect to see fast and bright meteors lighting up the sky with long trains.
The simplest way to know where to look is to download a night-sky app, and find the constellation of Leo.
