NASA has announced that the Eta Aquariid meteor shower is set to deliver a breath-taking celestial display, with meteor rates reaching up to one per minute. As our planet traverses the remnants of Halley’s Comet in the annual Eta Aquariid meteor shower, meteors will gracefully streak across the night sky, reaching their peak activity this weekend.
The Eta Aquariid meteor is named after its origination point in the sky, known as the radiant. This radiant is located in the constellation Aquarius, which is often referred to as the “water bearer.” Additionally, the radiant is situated near Eta Aquarii, one of the brightest stars in the constellation and one of the four stars that form the top of its “water jar.”
NASA has reported that Eta Aquariid meteors move at an incredibly high speed of around 148,000 miles per hour (238,000 kilometres per hour) when they penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. These rapid meteors have the ability to produce luminous “trains” that can persist for a few seconds to several minutes.
The American Meteor Society predicts that meteor activity will increase this year due to debris being influenced by the gas giant planet Jupiter and moving closer to Earth.
Bill Cooke, the director of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, has provided an explanation regarding meteor showers. According to him, a significant number of shooting stars observed this year are a result of material originating from Halley’s Comet, which is estimated to be around 3,000 years old. Cooke further elaborated that when our planet intersects with this debris, luminous streaks can be witnessed across the celestial expanse. On occasions when Earth traverses denser clusters of this material, it leads to a meteor outburst, causing a greater abundance of meteors visible in the sky.
As stated by NASA, the usual optimal time for observing would be the evening of May 4 through the early morning of May 5. Nevertheless, because of the outburst, May 2-6 might offer exceptional chances for stargazing. The American Meteor Society reports that the meteors will be visible during the hours before dawn in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Additionally, the US space agency mentioned that the eta Aquariids will not outburst again for approximately two decades.
