There’s going to be a glowing light in the sky between Tuesday and Wednesday as the Earth passes through the cosmic debris of Halley’s comet. The Eta Aquarids shower is the third major meteor shower of the year and is active from mid-April through late May. The densest debris patch, also called the peak, is where we’ll see the most activity. That’s what’s happening across the globe on the night of May 5 and into the morning of May 6. 

While the Aquarid meteor showers generally don’t yield the big flashes of light called fireballs, they’re known for their speed and the glowing trails they leave across the sky. According to NASA, these meteors shoot at 40.7 miles per second across the sky. Light trails can last between several seconds to minutes.

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«The Eta Aquarids are a meteor shower that is especially cool because it is fueled by Halley’s Comet,» Emily Rice, associate professor of astrophysics at Macaulay Honors College, told CNET. 

Halley’s comet is one of the most famous comets, and passes through the inner solar system every 76 years. Even though Halley’s comet is nowhere near Earth right now, it leaves its mark with the meteor showers born from the trail of dust the comet leaves in its orbital stream. 

Back in 1986, when the comet last swung through the inner solar system, it lost about 1/1,000th of its mass. Rice said that the dust trail crosses Earth’s orbit twice, which gives us two yearly meteor showers: the Eta Aquarid shower and the Orionid shower in October.

The Eta Aquarid shower is your last chance to see any meteors for a few months. The next one will be in late July. 

How to see the Eta Aquarid meteor shower

The Eta Aquarid shower can be seen anywhere around the world, as long as you aren’t at extreme northern or southern latitudes. The southern hemisphere gets the best views because the Eta Aquarids will be higher in the sky. Northern Hemisphere dwellers should expect to see «earthgrazers,» or long meteors near the horizon that look to skim the surface of the Earth.

«The shower is expected to peak at about 50 meteors an hour,» Rice said. Which means you’ll be waiting between meteor appearances. The longer you’re outside and the darker the sky is, the more you’ll see.

Stay away from lights, if you can

As with any meteor shower, you’ll get the best view at night, between midnight and dawn, when there is the least light. You’ll want to go to a location without much light from buildings or street lights.

According to the American Meteor Society, the circumstances for seeing the Eta Aquarid shower are excellent because the first quarter moon will set long before the radiant rises. The radiant is where the shower appears to originate from. In the case of the Eta Aquarid shower, that’s the Aquarius constellation, so that’s a good place to start looking. 

«The constellation of Aquarius won’t be visible in the night sky until after midnight, so this is a meteor shower for night owls or early birds,» Rice added.

You won’t step out of your door and see them

You don’t need a flashy camera or special equipment to watch a meteor shower. However, you shouldn’t expect to step outside and see it immediately. Your eyes need time to adjust to the darkness. So bring a blanket, chair or just lie in the grass, and get comfortable. Rice said that it will take about 20 to 30 minutes for your eyes to adapt and the meteors to appear. 

The shower will peak Monday night though Rice said that we could potentially see meteors from Halley’s comet for two to three weeks after the peak.

The Soviet space program had a lot of hope riding on the Cosmos 482 mission when it launched in March 1972. The mission included a lander destined for Venus. The spacecraft never made it out of Earth orbit — and now it’s coming home, but not in a good way. 

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«Because the probe was designed to withstand entry into the Venus atmosphere, it is possible the probe (or parts of it) will survive reentry at Earth and reach the surface,» NASA said. 

Also known as Kosmos 482, the lander probe weighed in at over 1,000 pounds at launch and was stocked with instruments designed to study the hellish surface of the second planet from the sun.

The mission hit a rough patch after reaching Earth orbit and separating into four pieces, two of which quickly decayed out of orbit. The lander probe and the upper-stage engine unit went into a higher orbit. «It is thought that a malfunction resulted in an engine burn which did not achieve sufficient velocity for the Venus transfer and left the payload in this elliptical Earth orbit,» NASA said.

The lander probe has been on a long, slow path back to Earth for decades, and the time of reunion is almost here. The potential reentry window stretches from May 7-13. We don’t have a precise time or location. Cosmos 482 will have an uncontrolled reentry, so it will be hard to predict its path. 

Water covers about 71% of Earth’s surface, so any Cosmos 482 pieces that survive the fiery atmospheric reentry process have a good chance of landing harmlessly in the ocean. However, there’s a possibility of debris ending up on land. 

This isn’t cause for panic. Science educator Marco Langbroek is tracking Cosmos 482 and posting reentry forecasts on his blog. «The risks involved are not particularly high, but not zero,» he wrote, saying the risks are similar to that of a meteorite impact.

So go ahead and keep an eye on Cosmos 482’s journey, but don’t book an underground bunker because of it. 

TikTok will need to reach deep into its pockets after the Irish data watchdog hit the social video platform with a massive 530 million euro ($600 million) fine on Friday. 

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission charged the company with violating Europe’s strict privacy laws by not doing enough to ensure that anyone’s data transferred to China is properly protected from government surveillance. The DPC also said that if TikTok doesn’t make changes to comply with its ruling within six months, it will have to completely suspend data transfers to China.

TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that it was adequately protecting people’s personal data that could be remotely accessed by staff in China, DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement. «As a result of TikTok’s failure to undertake the necessary assessments, TikTok did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to EEA personal data under Chinese anti-terrorism, counter-espionage and other laws identified by TikTok as materially diverging from EU standards,» he added.

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The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, which came into effect in 2018, means that people in Europe benefit from strong privacy protections. When companies are found to be breaking the rules, they can receive fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of their annual turnover, whichever is greater. The GDPR has formed the basis of other data privacy rules around the world, including California’s Consumer Privacy Act. The intention behind these rules is to guarantee people transparency over how their data is used, and to empower them to object when it’s used in ways they don’t approve of.

In the case of TikTok and the EU, the company has said that it’s never received any specific requests for European user data from the Chinese government. It believes that the period the fine applies to precedes 2023, when it put in place a 12 billion euro data security initiative in the EU called Project Clover.

«The decision fails to fully consider these considerable data security measures,» said Christine Grahn, TikTok’s head of public policy and government relations for Europe in a statement. «We disagree with this decision and intend to appeal it in full.»