SALT LAKE CITY — For several days, many people have reached out to FOX 13 News asking about the unusual and beautiful lights seen in the sky.
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Thankfully, along with the questions came pictures that could be viewed by the experts.
The photos shared were not from a single event because they were taken more than a half day apart. One image from Layton was taken at 7:30 a.m., while the other photographed in Taylorsville at 7 p.m.
"So they appear to be pictures of what we call fireballs or large meteors that are coming through earth's atmosphere, and there will be more of them. It's an annual event, the Orionid meteor showers," said Thomas Quayle, an education program specialist at Clarke Planetarium.
The tail in the object in one of the photos is the debris from Halley's Comet, so it's not an alien spaceship or anything like that.
"Here's what happens. Halley's Comet and the earth orbit the sun, though Halley's goes a lot farther and comes near us about every 76 years," explained Quayle. "Of course, our orbit is one year. Or our year is one orbit. Works both ways. On it's long trip, the comet's gravity scoops up space stuff and it leaves stuff behind in kind of a river of particles.
"As earth loops around to October every year, it's like one of those ads where a truck barrels across a stream. So those meteors are kind of like a drop of water splashed on earth's windshield."
The best chance to see the Orionid meteor shower will be next Thursday and Friday, with midnight the best time because that's when part of the earth is turned away from the sun.
