Have you heard of the Leonid meteor shower? It comes around every November, but the chances of seeing it this year are much higher than last year. The shower happens at the same time every year, when Earth’s orbit crosses the orbit of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, according to Space.com. A trail of dust is left behind the comet, and when Earth’s orbit crosses that trail, pieces of the comet fall toward our planet’s surface. Luckily for us, meteors are visible to the naked eye, and the shower will peak overnight Monday into Tuesday (Nov. 16-17) around 3 a.m.

Mars will appear brighter than at any other point during the year on Oct. 13, when it will be closest to Earth. “So, a little over every two years, Mars and Earth are closest together in their orbits and, thus, Mars is at its brightest in our nighttime sky. (© 2012 Michael Orso)Blue moon on HalloweenFor the first time since 2001, trick-or-treaters will get the chance to experience a Halloween full moon. A blue moon, by the most popular definition, according to Gross, is when two full moons appear in a single month. “We will have full moons on Oct. 1 and 31, so that means that we’ll have a blue moon on Halloween,” Gross said.

The new decade has arrived, and Mother Nature’s first gift to us all is an amazing meteor shower that will take place this weekend. The Quadrantid meteor shower will be easiest to see during the predawn hours Saturday, but is expected to begin late Friday. The Quadrantid meteor shower, which is known to produce 50-100 meteors, was named for a constellation that exists no more: the Quadrans Muralis. An astronomer by the name of Peter Jenniskens identified the parent body of the shower in 2003 as the asteroid 2003 EHI. EarthSky reported that if the asteroid is indeed the Quadrantid shower’s parent, the meteors come from a rocky body — not an icy comet.