Meteor shower could treat U.S. viewers to stunning spectacle

Scientists say a new meteor shower might turn into a full-fledged storm early Saturday morning, potentially producing at least three or four bright flashes per minute in the night sky. 

The display will come as the Earth passes through dusty debris left behind by Comet 209P/Linear in the 1800s.

North American sky-gazers will have the best potential views. The shower should peak from around 2 a.m. EDT and last until nearly dawn. A NASA map below provides details. 

"We expect these meteors to radiate from a point in Camelopardalis, also known as 'the giraffe,' a faint constellation near the North Star," Bill Cooke, NASA's meteroid chief, said in a NASA press release.

"It’s a great opportunity to see a new meteor shower – an opportunity I want to see with my own eyes.”

Discovered in 2004 by astronomers hunting for asteroids and comets that could hit Earth, 209P/Linear will be about 7.6 million miles from Earth on Saturday, but next Tuesday it will pass within 5 million miles.

Comets are clumps of rock and ice left over from the formation of the solar system, and scientists believe they come from the Oort Cloud, a collection of comets that is trillions of miles away and surrounds the sun and its planets.

Sometimes a comet becomes dislodged from the cloud and streaks toward the Sun, heating up and leaving a brilliant trail of gas and dust as it nears our star. 

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press