As Earth races toward the debris trail left by Halley’s Comet, the Éta Aquarids meteor shower will be visible around the world.
The Éta Aquarids appear each year between mid-April and late May, when it passes through the point in Earth’s orbit that coincides with the debris cloud leaving Halley’s comet from its 76-year orbit, reports the Newsweek.
The meteor shower is expected to peak on the evening of May 6, with up to 10 to 30 meteors per hour.
This meteor shower is the result of particles left behind by the famous Halley’s Comet. Discovered in the 1700s, the comet orbits the Sun in a long ellipse and passes the inner Solar System about every 76 years. The comet was last seen in 1986 and will not appear again until mid-2061.
During its journeys into the inner solar system, the comet is heated by the Sun, so that a flow of dust and ice particles breaks off from its surface. This wave of material remains in space even after the comet has long since returned to the outer solar system, and as Earth passes through the patch of space containing this debris each year, the Éta Aquarids meteor shower appears annually when the debris is enough in our atmosphere.
A meteor shower lasts about six weeks in the spring because the position of the debris varies. But we pass through the average position of the debris on May 5 or 6 each year, when meteor activity peaks due to the peak concentration of particles. Spectacular shooting stars show the particles slamming into Earth at about 71 kilometers per second and burning up in a bright explosion as they collide with the atmosphere.
Worth a look
Halley’s current orbit does not leave a debris trail that coincides with Earth’s orbit. THE International Meteorological Organization This means that the meteors we see every year actually come from particles emitted by the comet centuries ago.
Éta Aquarids will be visible in the constellation of Aquarius, which in the Northern Hemisphere can only appear on the horizon between 3 and 5 am. This makes observing more difficult for those living in northern latitudes, as the sky begins to lighten around this time in the summer. This year in particular, meteors will be even less visible due to the lunar phase, which will be full on May 5, meaning the bright light of the Moon will obscure the meteors.
Regardless, the number of meteors this year could be higher than usual, thanks to Jupiter, which is currently close to Earth in its orbit, and could therefore give many meteoroids an extra gravitational push towards our planet.
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2023-05-04 20:08:20
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