The month of May will have a beautiful and glittery ending. Tau Herculids meteor shower will be observed at the end of this month. It is a treat for all-sky gazers who have already enjoyed the Eta Aquarids meteor shower earlier this month. Check when and where can Tau Herculids meteor shower be observed, what is the reason for it and how to watch it here.
Attention, sky-watchers! This month holds out the possibility of an unusual (& potentially spectacular) celestial event: A "new" meteor shower caused by a broken comet! Thread (1/n) ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/zVGrOzISYH
— Jan Hattenbach (@JanHattenbach) May 2, 2022
OMG! This meteor shower might be the biggest night sky event of your lifetime! Or not. Read about the Tau Herculids, coming up the night of May 30-31 ...https://t.co/DD1bKHCRDx pic.twitter.com/GGGhjo7HOO
— EarthSky (@earthskyscience) May 26, 2022WATCH Tau Herculids Meteor Shower 2022 LIVE here
What is Tau Herculids meteor shower?
This shower finds its origin in comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann or SW3. The comet would be disintegrating and the skies on Earth would be full of 1000 shooting stars per hour. Wonder how many wishes would be granted that day.
The comet SW3 was discovered in 1930 and it orbited the Sun every 5.4 years. Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann are the two German observers who found it.
After it, the comet was seen in the 1970s.
After 1995 the comet was 600 times brighter than its initial phase and later by 2006, astronomers realised that it had broken into almost 70 pieces making a cloud dust tail of its own.
It has broken down into more pieces now and the astronomers have informed that the debris would be entering the Earth's atmosphere at 10 miles per second. This would result in the meteor shower at the end of May 2022.
As per NASA, the next Tau Herculids meteor shower could be one of the brightest in the sky this year.
Take a look at the video released by NASA below.
Tau Herculids Meteor Shower: When Can You See?
It will probably be visible from the evening of May 30, 2022, to the morning of May 31, 2022. It is expected to be the most stunning meteor shower of this century by astronomers.
However, there are also chances that one would not get to see this meteor shower at all as well. If seen, it would be the best though.
Bill Cooke, the chief of the Meteoroid Environment Office situated at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, confirmed that the upcoming meteor shower would be 'an all or nothing event' as it would cause a striking display from May 30 evening till 31st morning.
The meteor shower will be visible through the naked eye as well.
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What is a Meteor Shower?
A meteor shower is an astronomical event. It occurs when our planet Earth passes through a debris stream occupying the orbit of any comet. A shooting star is actually a meteor that has entered the atmosphere of the Earth.
“Meteors aren’t uncommon,” Bill Cooke said, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Earth is bombarded every day by millions of bits of interplanetary detritus speeding through our solar system.”
Most particles are equal to dust and sand. When these particles hit the upper atmosphere at speeds up to 45 miles per second, they flare and burn up. An average person can see from 4 to 8 meteors per hour every night. It is a normal cosmic event.
Other meteor showers that can be observed in 2022 are the Perseid meteor shower, which would be at its peak in August 2022 and the Draconid meteor shower in October 2022. Also one can see Orionid meteor showers and Leonid meteor showers as well, this year.
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