Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower Peaked on the Night of May 5

The Eta Aquariids flashed across the night sky after the Lyrid meteor shower in April. They reached their peak in the early hours of May 6. The meteors were active from April 20 to May 21. They were at their most active during the night of May 5 and the morning of May 6. They are known for their speed and brightness.
Due to the light of the waxing Moon, visibility was somewhat reduced this year. Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, had noted before the event, “Expect to see at most 10 to 15 meteors per hour just before dawn on the morning of the 6th.”

To catch the meteors at their best, skywatchers were advised to head outside around 2 a.m. local time on May 6. The recommendation was to lie back, look away from the Moon, and allow about 30 minutes for eyes to adjust to the dark—avoiding bright screens or lights to preserve night vision.

The meteors that lit up the sky were fragments from Comet 1P/Halley. Every time Halley’s Comet returns to the inner solar system, it sheds dust and ice. Some of these remnants eventually cross Earth’s orbit and burn up in our atmosphere, creating meteor showers like the Eta Aquariids in May and the Orionids in October.

Halley’s Comet takes approximately 76 years to orbit the Sun. It was last visible to the naked eye in 1986 and is not expected to return until 2061.

Discovered in 1705 by astronomer Edmund Halley, the comet became famous when Halley realized that reports of similar comets from earlier centuries were actually sightings of the same object. Halley’s Comet has been observed for millennia, even appearing in the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower gets its name from the constellation Aquarius, where the meteors appear to originate. More specifically, they seem to radiate from the vicinity of the star Eta Aquarii, hence the name.

For those who witnessed it, the 2025 Eta Aquariids offered a beautiful, fleeting glimpse into the vastness of space and the legacy of one of history’s most iconic comets.