TONIGHT: New Meteor Shower could be once-in-a-lifetime event

We could potentially be in for a meteor storm of epic proportions tonight into Tuesday morning. A never before seen meteor shower could occur as Earth passes through the debris from Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. Astronomers found this comet in 1930, and in 1995, astronomers watched as this comet began to fracture and litter its orbit with an increasing amount of debris.

This is called the "Tau Herculid" meteors. After the comet split apart in 1995, it still may be fragmenting in space. As Earth passes through a particularly dense stream of icy particles that the comet left behind, it could generate the spectacular shower.

Above is an infrared image of the comet broken apart from 2006, with the trail of debris left from its multiple trips around the sun. When Earth passes through it tonight, we might see this grand meteor show! Image from NASA's Spritzer Space Telescope.

Astronomers say that while there is some uncertainty (being this has never happened before) with just how many meteors there will be... the odds are good it could indeed occur, and possibly to the maximum. We will just have to wait and see tonight! The display could be as intense as a meteor storm (1000 or more meteors per hour) or as weak as only a few meteors. Meteor rates are hard to estimate in this case because we do not know for sure how much debris is left in space from this comet.

Bill Coke who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office said in part: "This is going to be an all or nothing event. If the debris from SW3 was traveling more than 220 miles per hour when it separated from the comet, we might see a huge meteor shower. But it is truly an interesting case where we do not know for absolute positive.

On average, there could be four meteors per minute - and up to 1,000 per hour. That is the consensus estimate from the astronomical community.

You might get to see brighter meteors than most of the meteors that you’ll ever see in your life, if this indeed happens to its fullest potential. Many astronomers say the chances are indeed *actually* good that this could happen!

It is unknown how long the shower will last... but astronomers are saying to watch around midnight.

You can view and witness this potentially major meteor shower for yourself tonight between 11PM and 1AM central time.

Get outside, and preferably away from a direct light or city and give your eyes a few minutes to adjust. Staying of your cell phone also can help. Look northward and at about a 45 degree angle up.

This could be a true meteor storm. The last one was the famous Leonid meteor storm of 1966.

Here is the major meteor shower schedule for the rest of the year: