Ready to embrace meteoric uncertainty?
Tau Herculids meteor showers can illuminate the skies of North America on May 30th and 31st. Or maybe not. There is a possibility that we will pass through the thickest part of the fragment of the comet that is creating the debris, in which case the night sky will be filled with shooting stars.
If it rains properly, it could cause a spectacular “meteorite storm,” in which the Earth passes through a particularly thick forest of space rocks, resulting in up to 1,000 shooting stars per hour, according to the Washington Post. open in new tab). And as an advantage, the moon will be new and the radiant, or apparent, direction of the rain is in the high constellation of Hercules in the northern sky. This means that there will be a minimum of natural light pollution that must be faced when looking for shooting stars.
But the spectacle of the sky is not a guarantee, NASA warned. If the comet that caused the storm has debris traveling at less than 220 mph (321 km / h), “then nothing will reach Earth and there will be no meteors from that comet,” said Bill Cooke, who directs NASA’s Meteorological Environment Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in a recent post on the agency’s blog (opens in a new tab).
A fireball observed by the CA000P Global Meteor Network in Ontario on April 17. (Image credit: Miguel Preciado) (opens in a new tab)
Meteorites are best seen around 2 a.m. local time, and in order to see them better, people need to get as far away from the city lights as possible. Wear comfortable clothes, arm against mosquitoes and sit in a grass chair to look up. The best meteor showers appear far from radiant.
The original body of the solar system for this rain is a comet, like an icy snowball, known as 73P / Schwassmann-Wachmann, or SW3 for short. The comet has long since been destroyed and as early as 2006 about 70 pieces were observed, although NASA suspects that there are more fragments lurking in the solar system.
“If we get there this year, SW3 debris will hit the Earth ‘s atmosphere very slowly, traveling just 10 miles. [16 kilometers] per second, “the agency warned. Slower meteors tend to produce weaker traces in the sky, but we may be surprised.
Astrophotographers who want to capture meteors should check out the Beginner’s Guide (opens in a new tab) on our sister website, Space.com. But if you can’t catch one this time, don’t worry, as there are many other meteor showers every year. A big regular bet is the Perseids (opens in a new tab), which peak in mid-August.
Editor’s Note: If you’re taking an amazing meteorite photo and want to share it with Live Science readers, send your photos, comments, and your name and location to community@livescience.com.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace.