Meteor outburst predicted for this weekend: When and where to see it

Conditions are looking good this year for the Ursid meteor shower to potentially see double or even triple the hourly rates under a mostly moonless night sky.

Just in time for the holidays, sky-watchers in the Northern Hemisphere may get a celestial gift this week, in the form of a flurry of shooting stars.

The annual Ursid meteor shower is set to peak on the evening of December 22 and into the predawn hours of December 23. Normally, this shower is more of a trickle, with rates of about 10 to 15 shooting stars an hour, on average. But meteor experts this year are predicting that the Ursids may produce a rare outburst of activity that could ramp up to double or even triple the usual rate.

The Ursids are named after the constellation Ursa Minor, the little bear, which marks the region of the sky from which

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