A little friendly advice for this weekend. Brace yourselves.

The Earth is heading at 66,000 miles per hour into a field of cosmic debris. Meteors will plummet to the planet, some as fast as 150,000 miles per hour.

Don't worry, though. This happens every year. And, most of that space junk just burns up in the atmosphere. But, it will make for one pretty cool light show.

Bill Kreiger, assistant professor of Earth science at York College, said that Sunday through Tuesday will be the best days to see a meteor shower - a persistent firing of shooting stars streaming across the evening sky.

You can see them through the end of the month, but starting this weekend will be the best show.

You're often lucky to catch a glimpse of a shooting star on a normal night, but on these nights, all you have to do is look up into a dark, clear sky. Meteors can be seen as frequently as one per minute, he said.

The debris of the Leonid meteorites was left behind by the Tempel-Tuttle Comet, which passes through our neck of the solar system every 33 years. Kreiger explained as the icy comet shoots through, it leaves behind a cloud of dust and rocks. The biggest storms can be seen in the years after the comet passes through.

Kreiger said a comet is a lot like a snowball rolling down the road. It picks up rocks and dirt. As it flies through space, the icy ball of the comet dissipates, leaving behind potential meteor showers if a planet happens to orbit through the area.

Tempel-Tuttle's last pass was in 1998, so there's still plenty of space junk to put on a light show.

Junk might not actually be the right word for what meteorites are.

"Meteorites are so valuable," Kreiger said.

They're packed with information about the atmosphere and the universe, he said. "Their chemical composition indicates quite a bit," he said.

Most meteorites burn up in the atmosphere, but some do not completely vaporize and actually land. A large chunk is usually the size of a walnut, sometimes bigger.

Six meteorites have been recorded to have landed in Pennsylvania, Kreiger said. The 1907 Shrewsbury Meteorite is on display at the Pennsylvania Academy of Science Museum.

They look pretty, he said, but they can be a danger to satellites.

According to stardate.org, the best time to see the meteor shower is in the early morning hours. They can best be seen on a dark night. The moon rises in the late evening. Bright moonlight often makes meteor-gazing difficult.

If you live near a lot of bright lights, drive out into the country for a better view. Let your eyes adjust to the dark, and as soon as you can see all the stars of the Little Dipper, your eyes are ready for the show.

The showers will seem to fall from the area of the constellation of Leo.