A once lost, decaying comet could deliver a brand new meteor shower to Earth next week.
The shower, called Tau Herculids, is expected to fall from comet SW3 in early May 30 and peak on May 31 between 12:45 pm and 1:17 am EDT, illuminating the skies in the United States and parts of Canada. with some short but bright flames.
NASA astronomer Bill Cook described the possible impending appearance of the comet in a NASA statement as an “all-or-nothing event.” The show will be the result of debris ejected from a comet fragment. While comet debris most often falls behind the comet’s fragment to form the tail, it can sometimes be ejected at such a high speed that pieces of ice and rock are fired in front of the comet. To see these debris as it burns in our atmosphere, it must be large enough or fast enough to burn brightly as our planet travels its path, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).
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“If the SW3 debris was moving at more than 220 miles per hour [354 km/h] “When it separates from the comet, we can see a nice meteor shower,” Cook said. “If the debris had a slower rate of ejection, then nothing will reach Earth and there will be no meteors from this comet.”
Comet SW3, or Comet 73P / Schwassmann-Wachmann, was named after its discoverers, the German astronomers Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann. The pair first discovered and cataloged SW3 in 1930, confirming from orbital observations that it was in orbit for 5.4 years. At its closest visit on May 31, 1931, the comet was only 5.7 million miles (9.2 million kilometers) from Earth, but it was quite weak and could only be seen through telescopes.
Then, in 1935, the comet disappeared from sight, coming and going eight times without being seen, until it was finally spotted again in 1979. The comet remained weak until its overflight in 1995, when it returned nearly 400 times brighter and visible to the naked eye. Further investigation soon revealed that the brightness of SW3 was due to a stunning transformation – its ice core broke into four fragments and by 2006 the wrecked comet had split into 68 parts. It probably continued to fall apart even more in the 16 years since.
The best places to spot the meteor shower will be in the southwest, AMS reported.
“The southwestern United States and Mexico are preferred locations because the radiant, the area of the sky where these meteors come from, will be located highest in the dark sky,” Robert Lunsford wrote in the community blog. “Alaska and Washington will be bathed in twilight at this time, ruining their chances of seeing anything. The same goes for the northern and western Canadian provinces. The outbreak can be seen from southeastern Canada and the rest of the (eastern) United States, but at lower altitudes. “
The best place to look for a comet is the constellation Boötes, which is right next to the star Arcturus, according to EarthSky. In addition, as the moon will be in a new phase, the sky will be dark, which will facilitate potential observation. The darkest possible viewing space is recommended for spotting this shower, as many of its smaller pieces will move slowly – which means they will burn poorly and may not be visible. However, as the display may contain larger fragments, it is likely that the shower will include some stunning slow-moving fireballs.
“If they reach us this year, SW3 debris will hit the Earth’s atmosphere very slowly, traveling only 10 miles [16 km] per second – which means much weaker meteors than those belonging to the Aquariums, “NASA wrote in its blog post.
Originally published in Live Science.
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