How to watch a potential Tau Hercules meteor storm online

A new meteor shower could light up the sky for Memorial Day holiday tonight on Monday and Tuesday (May 30-31) or it could be a big bust. But either way, you will be able to watch it live online.

Call Tau Hercules meteor showerthe event has the potential to be the so-called “Meteor storm” at a rate of 1,000 bright stars per hour Overnight on Monday when Earth passes through the debris of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. But it may also vanish completely, scientists don’t yet know. One NASA scientist called it an “all or nothing event.”

You can watch live views of the possible meteor shower Overnight Monday and dawn Tuesday in the above live broadcast from the Virtual Telescope Project led by astrophysicist Gianluca Massi in Secano, Italy. Free webcast It will start at 12 am. EST (0400 GMT) on May 31 It will feature views from all-sky cameras in Arizona and Brazil, Massey told Space.com. You can also Watch it live from the Virtual Telescope Project website (Opens in a new tab) at start time.

Three different views of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 by astrophysicist Gianluca Massi, Bellatrix Observatory, Virtual Telescope Project.

Three different views of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 as seen by astrophysicist Gianluca Massi of the Bellatrix Observatory and Virtual Telescope Project in Secano, Italy, May 4, 2006. (Image credit: Gianluca Massi/Bellatrix Observatory/Virtual Telescope Project)

The probability of meteor showers comes from the nature of the disintegration of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. The comet was first discovered in 1930 and its orbits the sun Once every 5.4 years, it comes 5.7 million miles (9.2 million km) from the Sun each time.

But it’s never certain that the dusty, gaseous debris from Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 will produce a great meteor shower, meteor storm, or anything at all.

Bill Cook, NASA astronomer tracking meteor showers in Marshall Space Flight Center In Huntsville, Alabama, he said, it all depends on the velocity of matter from the comet.

“If debris from SW 3 travels more than 220 miles [354 kilometers] In the hour when the comet separates, we might see a nice meteor,” Cook said recently. statement (Opens in a new tab). “If the debris had slower ejection velocities, nothing would reach Earth and there would be no meteors from this comet.”

It was Cook who said the Tao Herculed meteor shower It would be “all or nothing” In the same statement.

Explosions from the comet between 1995 and 2000 increased its brightness, and in April 2006 the Hubble Space Telescope I spotted a major fragmentation event The comet is also separated. By March 2017, Up to 68 different fragments left of the culprit.

NASA said that to see any meteor showers of the Tau Hercules meteor, observers should try to stay away from city lights because any “meteor” would likely be faint due to its slow speed.

“If it reaches us this year, SW 3 debris will hit Earth’s atmosphere very slowly, traveling only 10 miles.” [16 km] per second – which means meteorites much lighter than those belonging to eta Aquariids,” NASA Books in manual (Opens in a new tab). “But North American stargazers are especially noteworthy this year, because tau Hercules radiation will be high in the night sky at the expected peak time.”

Editor’s note: If you took an amazing photo of the tau Herculids meteor shower and would like to share it with the readers of Space.com, send your photos, comments, name and location to [email protected].

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