There may be a brief outburst of meteors late tonight and early tomorrow morning. In the fall of 1995, Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (73P) broke apart. Earth may pass into this debris trail fewer than twenty-four hours from now.
Any meteors associated with this predicted outburst will be seen only between 10:30pm and 1:30am Central Daylight. Some sources are calling this the Tau Herculid meteor shower. Tau Herculis is a class B, magnitude 3.9 star halfway between Aldhibain and Zeta Herculis. The actual radiant will probably be near 9 Boötis and 12 Boötis, so it's best to look in the south or the north--whichever section of sky has less light pollution. Always look between zenith and the horizon.
More information:
https://www.amsmeteors.org/2022/05/poss ... -may-3031/
https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/ ... ee-really/
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-n ... f-meteors/
https://www.space.com/meteor-storm-tau- ... er-webcast
The November 2020 paper from Joe Rao:
https://imo.net/papers/Comet%2073PSchwa ... oe-Rao.pdf
About 73P's Fracturing:
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news150.html
Potential Meteor Shower (30/31 May 2022)
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 5984
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA