Spectacular photos of the 2026 Lyrid meteor shower captured from Earth and space

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The Lyrid meteor shower put on a spectacular show last night as Earth plunged through the debris stream cast off by comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), triggering a peak of activity that saw shooting stars blaze a path away from the blue-white star Vega in the constellation Lyra.

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Shooting stars appear when fragments of comets and asteroids cross paths with Earth, ending their existence in a fiery outburst as they are swiftly overwhelmed by the extreme heat and pressure of atmospheric entry. The annual Lyrid meteor shower is among the most ancient on record, having been observed for the past 2,700 years, according to NASA.

This year's Lyrid meteor shower reached peak activity in the early hours of April 22, as Earth passed through the densest seam of comet Thatcher's debris trail. Read on to see a selection of gorgeous images captured from Earth and space on the nights surrounding the Lyrid's crescendo, as shooting stars tore fiery paths through the early spring sky.

Gorgeous photos of the 2026 Lyrid meteor shower

Astrophotographer Harlan Thomas captured a spectacular early morning natural light show on April 20, as a Lyrid meteor photobombed the northern lights above Alberta, Canada.

"The image was taken West of Calgary in an area called Jumping Pound on April 20, 2026 at 4:20 am MDT (1020 GMT)," Thomas told Space.com in an email. "A Coronal Hole High Speed Stream (CH HSS) had arrived the day earlier and the geomagnetic storm continued into the next day."

Thomas captured another bright Lyrid blazing earthward that same night, as columns of blue auroral light leapt skyward to crown a vibrant band of green, as a torrent of electrically charged particles from the sun collided with our planet's magnetic field.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, meanwhile, snapped an out-of-this-world view of a Lyrid meteor streaking through Earth's atmosphere from the International Space Station's cupola, while orbiting 248 miles (400 kilometers) above our planet earlier this month.

The 3-second exposure captures the blue-white light of city lights shining below a red arc of airglow at the edge of Earth's atmosphere, where molecules have been excited by solar radiation, causing them to emit light. The meteor can be seen to the left of the image just below the curve of Earth's horizon.

Photographer Tim Pruss imaged a Lyrid shooting star as it intersected the path of a satellite between tree branches overnight on April 20-21, ahead of a potentially cloudy peak on the following night. "I reviewed over 2,000 images, frame by frame, just to find one meteor, and I’d do it again tomorrow," Pruss said to Space.com.

X user EricTheSpaceCat recorded several bright Lyrids as they carved fiery paths through the Minnesota sky overnight on April 19-20, as activity ramped up ahead of the shower's narrow peak a few days later.

Finally, Connecticut-based photographer Jeremy Cruz, caught a number of the fast-moving meteors that same night, using a Sony A7C II mirrorless camera set to capture 10-second exposures of the post-sunset sky.

The Lyrid meteor shower is active until April 25 — albeit at a lower hourly rate that falls the further you get from the peak — so get outside and look up over the coming nights for a chance to spot the bright fast-moving shooting stars before they vanish from our skies for another year!

Following the Lyrids, the next major meteor shower is the eta Aquariids, which reach peak activity overnight on May 5-6, when a maximum of 50 shooting stars could be seen each hour.

Feeling inspired to capture your own meteor photos? Then be sure to read our guide to photographing shooting stars, along with our roundups of the best cameras and lenses for imaging the night sky.