Don’t Miss, The Gamma Normid Meteor Rain Peak Starts Tonight

KOMPAS.com – Starting tonight, there will be two sky phenomena that decorate the Indonesian sky and maybe they can be an alternative to accompany your weekend atmosphere at home.

These two celestial phenomena are Aphelion Mercury and the Gamma Normid Meteor Rain Peak. Here’s the explanation.

Aphelion in general is the configuration when the planet is farthest from the Sun.

This is caused by the planet’s elliptical orbit with the Sun at one of the two focal points of the orbit.

“When aphelion, Mercury will receive half the time compared to when it is in perielion, “said Andi Pangerang as a researcher from the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space Science Center (LAPAN) on the Lapan science education page.

Andi explained, the wide angle of Mercury when observed from Earth when aphelion is 26.6 percent smaller than when it is aphelion.

Although this difference in comparison is not very significant when observed through a telescope, Mercury’s angular width varies from 0.106 to 0.134 arc minutes.

For information, Mercury Aphelion occurs every 88 days on average or four times a year.

So in March 2021, Mercury Aphelion will occur on March 14, 2021, to be precise at 08.45 WIB. 09.45 WITA, 10.45 WIT with a distance of 69,863,000 kilometers from the Sun.

Despite its peak this morning, Mercury can only be observed in an east-southeast direction near the constellation Aquarius from rising for 75 minutes until the end of the sea twilight (42 minutes after sunset).

This year’s Aphelion will occur again on 10 June, 6 September and 3 December 2021.

Also read: Part of Indonesia is Colder Not because of Aphelion, but Wind Pattern

2. The peak of the Gamma Normid meteor shower

The peak of the meteor shower has always been the main attraction for those who like views of the sky phenomenon.

Well, tonight, precisely March 14-15, 2021, there will be a meteor shower that is experiencing its peak period, which is the peak of the Gamma Normid meteor shower.

Gamma Normid is a meteor shower whose radian point (the starting point of a meteor shower) is located in the Norma constellation, including the Scorplus and Centaurus constellations.

This meteor shower is active from February 25 to March 28, and the peak will occur on March 14, 2021, 23.00 WIB or March 15 at 00.00 WIB, 01.00 WIT.

If you want to observe this phenomenon, for information you can watch it from 21:45 local time from the southeast.

Then, the Gamma Normid meteor shower will culminate at 04.00 the next day (15/3/2021) from the south and can be witnessed when the maritime dawn ends.

The intensity of this meteor shower is about 4 meteors per hour.

“There is no need to use any tools to observe this meteor shower,” said Andi.

Also read: 12 Meteor Showers that Can Be Observed from Indonesia’s Skies Throughout 2021

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