October Draconids meteor shower peaks around October 9

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the country's national center for studying the sky, has explained a meteor shower^*1 called the October Draconids. It is also called the Giacobinids. The shower can be seen from October 6 to October 10 every year. Its peak^*2 is around October 9.

The shooting stars in this shower come from a comet^*3 called Comet Giacobini-Zinner. This comet comes back about every 6.5 years.

Some years are much bigger than others. In Japan, in 1985 and in 1998, people saw about 100 shooting stars in one hour. In the other years, when the comet does not come back, the shower is small. Even in those years, experienced sky watchers see a few shooting stars every hour. At the peak, the ZHR^*4 of this shower is 5.

1. *1 meteor shower: a time when many shooting stars can be seen in the night sky
2. *2 peak: the time when the most shooting stars appear
3. *3 comet: a ball of ice and dust that travels around the sun and sometimes has a long bright tail
4. *4 ZHR: a number that tells how many shooting stars one person could see in one hour under a very dark and clear sky