The Orionid meteor shower will reach its peak this weekend. A few days later, however, we can still see so-called shooting stars in the sky. The Orionids are an annual phenomenon in the autumn sky. “These meteor showers originate from the famous Halley’s comet, which is also interesting in that, in addition to the Orionids, it is also the mother comet of the so-called Eta-Aquarid showers, which can be observed at the beginning of May,” explains Pavel Koten from the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences.
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Prague
13:21 October 20, 2023 Share on Facebook
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Orionids | Source: Profimedia
How many meteors will we see in the sky?
The maximum of the meteor shower will occur at night in the morning hours from Saturday to Sunday. At that time, we might be able to see about 20 meteors belonging to this meteor shower in a clear and dark sky.
Could you recommend the exact hour we should watch?
Suitable conditions are around one o’clock in the morning, because the Moon will be below the horizon and the radiant of the meteor shower will already be high enough. So we should see quite a few meteors.
I assume correctly that this is an annual phenomenon that occurs in the fall. Will this year’s Orionids be any different?
They will be so, let’s say, average. In previous years, the activity reached even larger numbers, but no higher activity is expected for this year. So this should be a typical year for this meteor shower.
Where do the Orionids even come from?
Orionids, like other meteor showers, are named after the constellation from which they appear to fly, that is, the constellation in which the so-called radiant lies. In this case, it is the constellation of Orion.
In fact, those meteor showers originate from the famous Halley’s comet, which is also interesting because, in addition to the Orionid meteor shower, it is the mother comet of another shower, the so-called Eta-Aquarids, which are observable at the beginning of May.
How far from the comet must the debris travel before it enters our Earth’s atmosphere?
Fortunately for us, Halley’s Comet’s orbit does not come too close to Earth. The closest point is about 22 million kilometers from Earth’s orbit. That’s a good thing, because there’s no danger of us ever colliding with this comet.
On the other hand, this of course means that meteors need a relatively long time to get close to the Earth’s orbit due to various gravitational and other aspects.
Estimates are that it takes hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years for meteors to change their path enough to hit the ground. So these are relatively old meteoroids.
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2023-10-20 11:21:00
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