Meteor shower to rain over northern hemisphere

A meteor shower from the Bear Driver is due above the Earth's northern hemisphere, including Russia, in the next 24 hours. The shower will open the summer season of falling stars that people will be able to watch in the night sky, Sergei Barabanov, the leading specialist with the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reported on Tuesday.

"The diameter of 'interstellar travellers' will be no larger than 1 meter, which means they will all burn in the atmosphere about 20-40 kilometers above the earth surface," the astronomer said. "The Bootides, as scientists call them, are a meteor shower that Earth crosses every year." Annual observations of the meteor shower, according to Barabanov, help scientists to study its location in space and discover its new branches.

As summer goes by, Russians will get a chance to watch the meteor showers of Aquarides, from Aquarius, and Perseides, from Perseus. The latter, the most powerful of all meteor showers, will reach the peak of its activity on August 12.