A previously unobserved celestial event called the Camelopardalid meteor shower is set to take place for the first time on the night of 23 May.
Although skywatchers have been able to watch annual showers such as the Leonids and the Perseids, when Earth passes through debris left behind by the Comet Swift-Tuttle, for hundreds of years, next week's shower has never before graced our skies.The spectacular show is the result of tiny pieces of rock and ice given off by Comet 209P/LINEAR, a very faint comet that was discovered in 2004 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research initiative. The comet completes one orbit around the Sun every five years.
The Camelopardalid meteor shower will be visible for spectators in North America, as it is expected to occur on the night of 23 May and the early morning of 24 May. However, as the event will occur after sunrise, it will not be visible in the UK.
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