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Astronomers report a “meteorite storm” likely to occur next Monday night. It probably won’t happen, but if it does, the screen could be completely out of this world.
The upcoming Tau Herculid meteor shower usually produces only a string of shooting stars between mid-May and mid-June, but there is a possibility that this year will be something more special. Astronomers focus on a cluster of cometary debris that, if placed right on Earth’s orbital track, could cause meteorites to explode.
100,000 shooting stars per hour: what makes a “meteorite storm”
Meteor showers occur when the Earth plows through a stream of debris left behind by comets, asteroids, or other celestial bodies. Most are the size of puffed rice grains or small pebbles and produce bright screens as they burn in our outer atmosphere. Meteorite storms occur when the Earth enters an unusually dense and intense cluster of interstellar debris, similar to driving through a swarm of insects on the highway. In an instant, your windshield would be covered with spots that extend in your direction of travel.
That’s why, in the unlikely event that things line up properly, up to 1,000 shooting stars per hour may be possible.
The runes come out
Each meteor shower is connected to an object in space. In the case of the Perseids in August, the remains come from the comet Swift-Tuttle, while the Geminids in December are caused by an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon. Both screens result in between 50 and 100 meteors per hour when viewed under a clear, dark sky.
With the Herculid Tau rain, the parent comet is Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW3), which came closer to the sun on October 16, 2011. Since then, it has been in the process of fragmentation and disintegration.
The comet was discovered in 1930 and orbits the sun every 5.4 years. It was not seen again, however, until late 1979, making a series of clandestine passes through Earth. The comet unexpectedly adorned the night sky in 1995 after apparently breaking into four pieces.
There are now more than a dozen pieces, and each fragment, especially that of 1995, can result in billions of small fragments of debris.
Due to the effects of mass, gravity, and pressure due to sunlight, some of the remnants of gravel size may take smaller orbits than they would. come in of the main comet, and in a trajectory for a possible intersection with the Earth’s orbit.
What are the chances of a meteorite storm?
According to space.com, a number of astronomers are optimistic that a new meteor shower may be about to arrive this year, and some even claim that meteor storm levels of 1,000 stars could be reached. fleeting per hour.
That said, astronomers do not know how far the fragments have spread or the size of the rubble cloud.
Meteorite rates could range from one to 1,000 meteors per hour. If a meteorite storm occurs, it would only last an hour or two, and probably less.
“This is going to be an all-or-nothing event,” wrote Bill Cooke, who heads NASA’s Bureau of Meteorological Environment. “If SW3 debris traveled more than 220 miles per hour when it separated from the comet, we could see a good meteor shower. If the debris had slower ejection rates, nothing would reach Earth and there would be no meteor showers. ‘this comet’.
If there is a storm, you will no i want to lose it
Astronomers have pointed out that the most likely time for the peak of any screen that may or may not pass is around 1 a.m. Eastern Time, next Monday night / Tuesday morning. The “radiant” point of the rain, or the part of the sky from which the meteors seem to emanate, will be high in the sky over North America at that time, so there is no specific place in the sky to look.
Of course, you’ll want to isolate yourself from bright lights or obstructions and move to an area with a wide view of the sky. It will make time allow, of course.
Meteorite storms have occurred with the Leonid meteor shower, which takes place every year in November. Normally, the Leonids only throw a few shooting stars per hour above, making it an unremarkable spectacle. But every now and then, the sky explodes with sudden peaks of extreme activity and meteorite rates of 100,000 per hour.
In 902 AD, astronomers in North Africa and China explained that stars fell “like rain.” In 1799 another meteorite storm was seen over present-day Venezuela.
It happened again in 1833. “In Boston, the frequency of meteors was estimated to be about half that of snowflakes in an average snowstorm,” wrote Irish astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke. that the storm lasted about nine hours. Clerke put meteorite rate estimates at an unprecedented level of up to 240,000 shooting stars. for hours. That’s more than 60 shooting stars per second.
The Leonids dazzled again on the night of November 13-14, 1866. A Maltese newspaper published a report from an eyewitness who described the scene as “truly grandiose and imposing … one of the most sublime I’ve never seen it. “
In 1966, another meteorite storm struck, sparking an equally splendid fireworks display in the United States. Eyewitness Christine Downing, who was driving north of Mojave, California, saw a pair of shooting stars every five minutes, which “at the time … seemed extraordinary.” At 12:30, it started to “rain stars” and at 2 in the morning “it was a” belly “.”
Its description, which can be read in its entirety on a NASA website, is one of many that night. “There was the unsettling feeling that the mountains were on fire,” Downing wrote. “The falling stars filled the whole sky to the horizon, but there was silence.”
More domestic outbreaks occurred in 1999 and 2001.
There are no Leonid meteorite storms or any other rain explicitly predicted in our lives, nor are we likely to come across anything like what previous generations saw, but next week could offer a taste.