For thousands of years, people have believed that a shooting star can grant wishes.
If this turns out to be true, then all you have to do is start your wish list right away, because tonight hundreds of them will grace the sky.
That’s when one of the earth’s most active meteor swarms will reach its peak, says Tor E. Aslesen in the Norwegian Meteor Network.
– Tonight you can possibly see the Quadrantides, which is a meteor shower that peaks around January 1 and 2. It can produce quite a few meteors, and can mainly be seen in the northern part of the sky, he tells Dagbladet.
The nurses slept here
– Find a dark place
Aslesen encourages those who want to see the shower of stars to find a dark place, away from the light pollution of the big cities.
– To see the swarm, you should be in a dark place. The moon rose at 1pm today, so it may interfere a bit. But luckily it’s a crescent moon so it won’t be as much.
– FIND A DARK PLACE: Tonight it is important to keep the island up, says Tor E. Aslesen. Photo: Private Show more
He says that there will also be more meteors after midnight.
– After midnight, the probability of seeing such meteor showers increases. That’s when most of them come on a collision course with the ground, says Aslesen.
– So you might not want to be able to see them in big cities like Oslo?
– It probably doesn’t look like that, but it should clear up a bit during the night, so you never know. This swarm also comes when it’s quite cold, so you have to be willing to stand outside in sub-zero temperatures, he chuckles.
About the snow chaos: – I’m pissed off
– Remnants of dead comet
Despite the fact that countless disaster films show meteors wiping out cities and entire continents, they usually burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, says Aslesen.
– Most meteor showers are connected to a comet. The quadrants are connected to a kind of dead comet, i.e. what is left after the ice has melted away. Then there is only a core of stone left, which emits pebbles. They burn up in our atmosphere and thus create such a meteor shower.
– How often do such meteor showers occur?
– There are a number of them during the year. Many comets have gone around the sun, and some of them leave such tracks and unload material that then goes into orbit around the sun, says Aslesen.
2024-01-03 22:01:13
#Tonight
