List of meteor showers

Named meteor showers recur at approximately the same dates each year. They appear to "radiate" from a certain point in the sky (the radiant) and vary in the speed, frequency and brightness of the meteors. As of November 2019, there are 112 established meteor showers.[1]

Table of meteor showers

Note: Dates are accurate for 2021.[2] The dates will 'move' based upon the year in the Leap year cycle. Also, this list includes showers with radiants in both the northern and southern hemispheres. There is some overlap, but generally showers whose radiants have positive declinations are best seen from the northern hemisphere, and those with negative declinations are best observed from the southern hemisphere.

Name	Dates (as of 2021)	Peak (as of 2021)	Celestial longitude ${\displaystyle \lambda (^{\circ })}$	RA	Dec	Speed (km/s)	ZHR	rating	parent body[3]
Antihelion Source	10 Dec – 10 Sep	multiple		varies	varies	30	4	medium	N/A (various comets)
Quadrantids	28 Dec – 12 Jan	3 Jan	283.15	15.3	+49	41	110	bright	(196256) 2003 EH1 ?
Gamma Ursae Minorids	10 Jan – 22 Jan	19 Jan	298	15.2	+67	31	3	medium	undiscovered (short period)
Alpha Centaurids	31 Jan – 20 Feb	8 Feb	319.2	14.0	−59	58	6	bright	undiscovered
Gamma Normids	25 Feb – 28 Mar	14 Mar	354	15.9	−50	56	6	bright	possibly C/1864 R1 (Donati) or C/1893 U1 (Brooks)
Lyrids	14 Apr – 30 Apr	22 Apr	32.32	18.1	+34	49	18	bright	C/1861 G1 (Thatcher)
Pi Puppids	15 Apr – 28 Apr	23 Apr	33.5	7.3	−45	18	variable	bright	26P/Grigg-Skjellerup
Eta Aquariids	19 Apr – 28 May	5 May	45.5	22.5	−1	66	50	bright	1P/Halley
Eta Lyrids	3 May – 14 May	8 May	48	19.1	+44	43	3	medium	C/1983 H1 (IRAS-Araki-Alcock)
Daytime Arietids	14 May – 24 Jun	7 Jun	76.6	2.9	+24	38	30	medium	1566 Icarus ?
June Bootids	22 Jun – 2 Jul	27 Jun	95.7	14.9	+48	18	variable	bright	7P/Pons-Winnecke
Piscis Austrinids	15 Jul – 10 Aug	29 Jul	125	22.7	−30	35	5	faint	undiscovered (short period, probably disintegrated)
Southern Delta Aquariids	12 Jul – 23 Aug	30 Jul	127	22.7	−16	41	25	bright	P/2008 Y12 (SOHO)
Alpha Capricornids	3 Jul – 15 Aug	30 Jul	127	20.5	−10	23	5	bright	169P/NEAT
Perseids	17 Jul – 24 Aug	12 Aug	140.0	3.2	+58	59	100	bright	109P/Swift-Tuttle
Kappa Cygnids	3 Aug – 25 Aug	17 Aug	145	19.1	+59	25	3	medium	undiscovered (possibly related to 2002 GJ8)
Aurigids	28 Aug – 5 Sep	1 Sep	158.6	6.1	+39	66	6	bright	C/1911 N1 (Kiess)
September Epsilon Perseids	5 Sep – 21 Sep	9 Sep	166.7	3.2	+40	64	5	medium	undiscovered (moderate period)
Daytime Sextantids	9 Sep – 9 Oct	27 Sep	184.3	10.1	0	32	5	bright	(155140) 2005 UD
October Camelopardalids	5 Oct – 6 Oct	5 Oct	192.58	10.9	+79	47	5	bright	undiscovered (long period)
Draconids	6 Oct – 10 Oct	8 Oct	195.4	17.5	+54	20	10	medium	21P/Giacobini-Zinner
Southern Taurids	10 Sep – 20 Nov	10 Oct	197	2.1	+9	27	5	bright	2P/Encke
Delta Aurigids	10 Oct – 18 Oct	11 Oct	198	5.6	+44	64	2	medium	undiscovered (moderate period)
Epsilon Geminids	14 Oct – 27 Oct	18 Oct	205	6.8	+27	70	3	medium	C/1964 N1 (Ikeya)
Orionids	2 Oct – 7 Nov	21 Oct	208	6.3	+16	66	20	bright	1P/Halley
Leonis Minorids	19 Oct – 27 Oct	24 Oct	211	10.8	+37	62	2	medium	C/1739 K1
Northern Taurids	20 Oct – 10 Dec	12 Nov	230	3.9	+22	29	5	bright	2004 TG10
Leonids	6 Nov – 30 Nov	17 Nov	235.27	10.1	+22	71	10	bright	55P/Tempel–Tuttle
Alpha Monocerotids	15 Nov – 25 Nov	21 Nov	239.32	7.8	+1	65	variable	bright	undiscovered (long period)
November Orionids	13 Nov – 6 Dec	28 Nov	246	6.1	+16	44	3	medium	undiscovered (moderate period, probably disintegrated)
Phoenicids	28 Nov – 9 Dec	2 Dec	250.0	1.2	−53	18	variable	medium	289P/Blanpain
Puppid-Velids	1 Dec – 15 Dec	multiple	255	8.2	−45	40	10	medium	undiscovered
Monocerotids	5 Dec – 20 Dec	9 Dec	257	6.7	+8	41	3	medium	C/1917 F1 (Mellish)
Sigma Hydrids	3 Dec – 20 Dec	9 Dec	257	8.3	+2	58	7	medium	undiscovered (moderate period)
Geminids	4 Dec – 20 Dec	14 Dec	262.2	7.5	+33	35	150	medium	3200 Phaethon
Comae Berenicids	12 Dec – 23 Dec	16 Dec	264	11.7	+18	65	3	medium	undiscovered (moderate period)
December Leonis Minorids	5 Dec – 4 Feb	19 Dec	268	10.7	+30	64	5	medium
Ursids	17 Dec – 26 Dec	22 Dec	270.7	14.5	+76	33	10	medium	8P/Tuttle

See also

• Lists of astronomical objects

Sources

This list of meteor streams and peak activity times is based on data from the International Meteor Organization while most of the parent body associations are from Gary W. Kronk book, Meteor Showers: A Descriptive Catalog, Enslow Publishers, New Jersey, ISBN 0-89490-071-4, and from Peter Jenniskens's book, "Meteor Showers and Their Parent Comets", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, ISBN 9780521853491.

Footnotes

1. Meteor Data Centre, IAU
2. "2021 Meteor Shower Calendar" (PDF). International Meteor Organization.
3. "Meteor Streams". NASA.

Further reading

• Gary W. Kronk (2014). Meteor showers: an annotated catalog. The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series (2nd ed.). Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-7897-3. ISBN 978-1461478966.