The Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower.

The Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower is visible some years between the months of June and September, peaking between 3 and 25 August, with the best peak rate generally falling before dawn on 18 August, when the shower can produce 2-3 meteors per hour, with these tending to be bright fireballs with multiple fares. The meteor shower gains its name from the star Kappa Cygnus, which it is close to at the peak of its activity, and which is circumpolar in the Northern Hemisphere (i.e., close to the North Pole, and permanently above the horizon), although generally invisible in the Southern Hemisphere. If the shower does appear, viewing should be reasonably good, as activity will peak two days before the first quarter Moon, which will be in the constellation of Virgo, providing minimal light interference. However, the meteor shower is notoriously erratic, not being seen every year; it was last seen in the Augusts of 2020 and 2021, and before that in 2013 and 2014, then before that in 2007.

The radiant point of the Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower. The Sky Live.

Meteor showers are thought to be largely composed of material from the tails of comets. Comets are composed largely of ice (mostly water and carbon dioxide), and when they fall into the inner Solar System the outer layers of this boil away, forming a visible tail (which always points away from the Sun, not in the direction the comet is coming from, as our Earth-bound experience would lead us to expect). Particles of rock and dust from within the comet are freed by this melting (strictly sublimation, transforming directly from a solid to a gas due to the low pressure on it's surface) of the comet into the tail and continue to orbit in the same path as the comet, falling behind over time.

The Earth passing through a stream of comet dust, resulting in a meteor shower. Not to scale. Astro Bob.

The source body of the Kappa Cygnid Meteors remains somewhat of an enigma. The low number of asteroids, and their irregular arrival, suggests they are an old shower potentially derived from an object no longer visiting the Inner Solar System, whereas the brightness of the meteors suggests a younger origin. One possible solution to this is that they are derived from a body whose orbit undergoes a sinusoidal oscillation, something which can be caused if a body is forced into an orbital resonance with a larger body, often Jupiter in our Solar System. 

How the passage of the Earth through a meteor shower creates a radiant point from which they can be observed. In The Sky.

One potential parent body for the Kappa Cygnid Meteors which has been suggested is 2008 ED69, an asteroid which has an orbit with a 2:1 resonance with that of Jupiter and an orbital period of 4.96 years, which is thought to have been pushed into and out of Earth-crossing orbits repeatedly over the past 6000 years. However, more recent studies have established that the Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower has an orbital period of 7.12 years and is locked into a 5:3 orbital resonance with Jupiter, ruling out 2008 ED69 as a potential parent body.

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Meteorite fragments recovered in Germany after fireball seen over northwestern Europe.

More than 3000 witnesses in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands have reported observing a bright fireball meteor at about 6.55 pm local time (about 5.55 pm GMT) on Sunday 8 March 2026, with some witnesses also reporting a sonic boom. The meteor is described as having moved from southwest to northeast for about six seconds before exploding in a fireball over the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. 

A very bright fireball moving from the southwest to the northeast was observed by many people in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Bernd Klemt/AllSky7 fireball network/European Space Agency.

Objects of this size probably enter the Earth's atmosphere several times a year, though unless they do so over populated areas they are unlikely to be noticed. They are officially described as fireballs if they produce a light brighter than the planet Venus. The brightness of a meteor is caused by friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is typically far greater than that caused by simple falling, due to the initial trajectory of the object. Such objects typically eventually explode in an airburst called by the friction, causing them to vanish as a luminous object. However, this is not the end of the story as such explosions result in the production of a number of smaller objects, which fall to the ground under the influence of gravity (which does not cause the luminescence associated with friction-induced heating).

These 'dark objects' do not continue along the path of the original bolide, but neither do they fall directly to the ground, but rather follow a course determined by the atmospheric currents (winds) through which the objects pass. Scientists are able to calculate potential trajectories for hypothetical dark objects derived from meteors using data from weather monitoring services.

Shortly after the meteor was sighted, two residents of a flat in the German city of Koblenz reported an impact which had caused a football-sized hole in their roof, as well as damage to a tiled floor in the room underneath. A search of the flat yielded eleven fragments of rock with masses of between 6 and 161 g. A number of smaller fragments were subsequently found in a neighbouring courtyard by professional meteorite-hunters and sold. Police in Koblenz have subsequently issued a warning to other meteorite-hunters in the area to respect private property, and not to collect suspected fragments from areas which they have not been given permission to enter.

The largest of the meteorite fragments recovered from a home in Koblenz, Germany, weighing 161 g. SWR.

The meteorite fragments have a pale interior and a near-black crust, making it likely that they are a type of stoney meteorite called a HED (howardite–eucrite–diogenite) achondrite breccia. These meteorites resemble terrestrial igneous rocks, and are therefore presumed to have come from a body large enough for magma differentiation and igneous processing to have occurred. HED meteorites comprise about 5% of all meteorites recovered on Earth, and about 60% of achondritic meteorites (meteorites which do not contain chondrules, spherules of glassy material thought to have formed from molten droplets in space before being incorporated into larger bodies).

Fragments of probable HED meteorite recovered from a flat in Koblenz, Germany. SWR.

While HED meteorites vary somewhat in composition, all are thought to derive from the surface of the Asteroid 4 Vesta. Studies of these meteorites have produced crystallisation ages of between 4.43 and 4.55 billion years, and all show signs of having formed in an environment where igneous differentiation has occurred. These meteorites are thought to have been dislodged from the surface of their parent body by ancient impacts.

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Asteroid 2026 EM passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2026 EM passed by the Earth at a distance of about 28 424 km (7% of the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 0.02% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, but 71 times the distance at which the International Space Station orbits the Earth), at about 7.45 pm GMT on Monday 7 March 2026. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though were it to do so it would not have presented a significant threat. Asteroid 2026 EM has an estimated equivalent diameter of 1-3 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 1-3 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to explode in an airburst (an explosion caused by superheating from friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is greater than that caused by simply falling, due to the orbital momentum of the asteroid) more than 42 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material (if that) reaching the Earth's surface.

The relative positions of 2026 EM, the Earth, and the Moon at 8.00 pm on Monday 7 March 2026. JPL Small Body Database.

2026 EM was discovered on 6 March 2026 (the day of its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Szeged's Szeged Asteroid Program, which is located at the Piszkéstető Mountain Station in the Mátra Mountains to the northeast of Budapest. The designation 2022 EM implies that it was the 12th asteroid (object M - in numbering asteroids the letters A-Y, excluding I, are assigned numbers from 1 to 25, with a number added to the end each time the alphabet is ended so that A = 1, A1 = 26, A2 = 51, etc., which means that M implies the 12th asteroid) discovered in the first half of March 2026 (period 2026 E - the year being split into 24 half-months represented by the letters A-Y, with I being excluded).

The relative positions of 2026 EM, the Earth, and the planets of the Inner Solar System at 8.00 pm on Monday 7 March 2026. JPL Small Body Database.

2026 EM has a 425 day (1.16 year) orbital period, with an elliptical orbit tilted at an angle of 4.77° to the plain of the Solar System which takes in to 0.89 AU from the Sun (89% of the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) and out to 1.32 AU (132% of the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). This means that Asteroid 2026 EM has occasional close encounters with the Earth, with the most recent having happened in March 2019, and the next predicted for March 2039. The asteroid also has occasional close encounters with the planet Mars, with the next such encounter predicted for May 2032.

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Asteroid (242708) 2005 UK1 passes the Earth.

Asteroid (242708) 2005 UK1 passed by the Earth at a distance of about 12 355 300 km (32.2 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 8.26% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly after 10.25 am GMT on Monday 12 January 2026. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though were it to do so it would have presented a significant threat. Asteroid (242708) 2005 UK1 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 450-1400 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 450-1400 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and impact  the Earth's surface, causing an explosion with an equivalent energy release of more than 4000 megatons of TNT. An impact of this size would be expected to flatten forests and man-made structures over thousands of kilometres, while producing a crater at least 6 km in diameter and probably significantly larger, as well as causing global climatic effects which would persist for decades if not centuries.

120 second image of (242708) 2005 UK1 taken with the Elena Planetwave 17" Telescope at Ceccano in Italy on Sunday 11 March 2026. The asteroid is the small point at the centre of the image, the longer lines are stars, their elongation being caused by the telescope tracking the asteroid over the length of the exposure. Gianluca Masi/Virtual Telescope.

(242708) 2005 UK1 was discovered on 24 October 2005 by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2005 UK1 implies that the asteroid was the 35th object (asteroid K1 - in numbering asteroids the letters A-Z, excluding I, are assigned numbers from 1 to 25, with a number added to the end each time the alphabet is ended, so that A = 1, A1 = 26, A2 = 51, etc., which means that K1 = 25 + 10 = 25) discovered in the second half of October 2005 (period 2005 K - the year being split into 24 half-months represented by the letters A-Y, with I being excluded).

(242708) 2005 UK1 is calculated to have a 1445 day (3.96 year) orbital period, with an elliptical orbit tilted at an angle of 0.79° to the plain of the Solar System which takes in to 0.79 AU from the Sun (79% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) and out to 4.24 AU (4.24 times the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, almost three times the distance at which the planet Mars orbits). 

The positions and orbits of Asteroid (242708) 2005 UK1 and the planets of the Inner Solar System at 10.00 am on Monday 12 January 2026. JPL Small Body Database.

(242708) 2005 UK1 is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid, which is an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer. As an asteroid possibly larger than 150 m in diameter that occasionally comes within 0.05 AU of the Earth, (242708) 2005 UK1 is also classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid.

Close encounters between (242708) 2005 UK1 and Earth are fairly common, with the last thought to have happened in April 2018 and the next predicted in December 2029. (242708) 2005 UK1  also has frequent close encounters with other planets, the last being an encounter with Venus in September 1974, and the next predicted being an encounter with Mars in February 2133.

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The Quadrantid Meteor Shower.

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower is one of the brightest meteor showers of the year, often producing over 100 meteors per hour at its peak, which falls around 3-4 January each year, and is predicted to peak at about 11.00 pm on Saturday 3 January 2026. Unfortunately, this coincides with the Full Moon this year, which may hamper viewing somewhat.

The meteor shower originates in the constellation of Boötes, high in the northern sky, which is slightly confusing, as most meteor showers are named for the constellation in which they originate. This is because the constellation was named in the sixteenth century by astronomer Tycho Brahe, before the introduction of standardised constellations used by modern astronomers, though to make matters a little more confusing, Brahe didn't name the meteors this way either; the name comes from the constellation of Quadrans Muralis, introduced by Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande in 1795, and dropped by the International Astronomical Union in 1922. Because Boötes is visible only from the Northern Hemisphere, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower is not visible from the Southern Hemisphere, and is best viewed from northerly locations such as Canada or Scandinavia.

The radiant point of the Quadrantid Meteors (i.e. the point from which the meteors seem to radiate). American Meteor Society.

Meteor streams are thought to come from dust shed by comets as they come close to the Sun and their icy surfaces begin to evaporate away. Although the dust is separated from the comet, it continues to orbit the Sun on roughly the same orbital path, creating a visible meteor shower when the Earth crosses that path, and flecks of dust burn in the upper atmosphere, due to friction with the atmosphere.

The Earth passing through a stream of comet dust, resulting in a meteor shower. Not to scale. Astro Bob.

The Quadrantid Meteors are unusual in that they typically are only visible for a few hours either side of this peak, whereas other showers are typically visible for days or even weeks. This is thought to be because they originate from an asteroid (196256) 2003 EH1, rather than the tail of a comet as with most meteor showers. The orbit of this asteroid is tilted at an angle of 71.9° to the plane of the Solar System, so that the Earth only very briefly passes through the debris trail left by it, rather than remaining in it for some time, as is the case with the trail of a comet with an orbit in roughly the same plane as the Earth.

The calculated orbits and position (196256) 2003 EH1 and the planets of the Inner Solar System at 11.00 pm GMT on Saturday 3 January 2026.  JPL Small Body Database. 

(196256) 2003 EH1 is a 2.6-4.0 km diameter object with a 2017 day (5.52 year) orbital period, with an elliptical orbit tilted at an angle of 70.8° to the plain of the Solar System which takes in to 1.19  AU from the Sun (119% of the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) and out to 5.05 AU (505% of the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun slightly inside the orbit of the planet Jupiter). This means that close encounters between the asteroid and Earth happen occasionally, with the last calculated to have happened in December 1936 next predicted in December 2052.  It is therefore classed as an Amor Group Asteroid (an asteroid which comes close to the Earth, but which is never closer to the Sun than the Earth is). (196256) 2003 EH1 also has occasional close encounters with the planet Jupiter, with the last having happened in June 1984, and the next predicted for March 2044.

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