Upcoming Meteor Showers

Bring your boyfriend to work day: Keira Knightley shares a laugh on set with ...

Keira Knightley looked happy and content today as she was pictured strolling through the Miami set of her upcoming film Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

And little wonder, as the actress was enjoying the company of the two leading men in her life - boyfriend James Righton and her co-star in the comedy, Steve Carell.

The trio shared a laugh as they walked together in the sunshine before Keira and Steve got down to work.

The couple were introduced by mutual friend Alex Chung, following Keira's split from long-time love Rupert Friend.

Keira and Rupert broke up just before Christmas, blaming work commitments had driving them apart.

Keira met Rupert, 29, when they appeared together in the 2005 film version of Pride And Prejudice.  Prior to Rupert, Keira dated Irish model Jamie Dornan for two years.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, set for release next year, sees Knightley and Carell team up as neighbours thrown together as the earth is threatened with extinction.

Carell's character, Dodge, joins forces with Penny (Knightley) after his wife panics and leaves him after hearing there is an asteroid making it's way to Earth.

The film's spokesperson, James Schamus, had fun explaining the plot of the movie during an interview with EW recently.

He playfully told EW: 'It opens with the news report that the laser ray we sent into outer space to try to knock out this meteor shower just didn’t work and so the meteors are coming in a few days.That’s it. End of report.'

Describing Keira and Carell's characters, Schamus said they are: 'two people who live more life in those few days, and really get the hope they hadn’t had in their lives before, because they weren’t fully living them.'

He added: 'Once that sense of mortality really does enter into it, they find they’re given the space to be who they are.'

The epic comedy also stars Up in the Air actress, Melanie Lynskey and CSI's William Petersen.

2011 Meteor Showers | StarDate Online

NOTES These are approximate times for the Lower 48 states; actual shower times can vary. Bright moonlight makes it difficult to see all but the brightest meteors.

An increase in the number of meteors at a particular time of year is called a meteor shower.

Comets shed the debris that becomes most meteor showers. As comets orbit the Sun, they shed an icy, dusty debris stream along the comet's orbit. If Earth travels through this stream, we will see a meteor shower. Depending on where Earth and the stream meet, meteors appear to fall from a particular place in the sky, maybe within the neighborhood of a constellation.

Meteor showers are named by the constellation from which meteors appear to fall, a spot in the sky astronomers call the radiant. For instance, the radiant for the Leonid meteor shower is located in the constellation Leo. The Perseid meteor shower is so named because meteors appear to fall from a point in the constellation Perseus.

"Shooting stars" and "falling stars" are both names that people have used for many hundreds of years to describe meteors -- intense streaks of light across the night sky caused by small bits of interplanetary rock and debris called meteoroids crashing and burning high in Earth's upper atmosphere. Traveling at thousands of miles an hour, meteoroids quickly ignite in searing friction of the atmosphere, 30 to 80 miles above the ground. Almost all are destroyed in this process; the rare few that survive and hit the ground are known as meteorites.

When a meteor appears, it seems to "shoot" quickly across the sky, and its small size and intense brightness might make you think it is a star. If you're lucky enough to spot a meteorite (a meteor that makes it all the way to the ground), and see where it hits, it's easy to think you just saw a star "fall."

If you live near a brightly lit city, drive away from the glow of city lights and toward the constellation from which the meteors will appear to radiate.

For example, drive north to view the Leonids. Driving south may lead you to darker skies, but the glow will dominate the northern horizon, where Leo rises. Perseid meteors will appear to "rain" into the atmosphere from the constellation Perseus, which rises in the northeast around 11 p.m. in mid-August.

After you've escaped the city glow, find a dark, secluded spot where oncoming car headlights will not periodically ruin your sensitive night vision. Look for state or city parks or other safe, dark sites.

Meteor showers and their parent comets

David Levy's guide to observing meteor showers

New York Magazine

In Quest of the Universe

Meteor showers, a descriptive catalog