Are you ready to accept some meteorite uncertainty?
The Tau Herculide meteor shower could illuminate the skies over North America on May 30 and 31. Or maybe not. We are likely to pass through the thickest part of the comet fragment that creates the debris, in which case the night sky will be filled with shooting stars.
Related: The biggest meteor storms of all time More: Potential meteor showers are an “all or nothing event”, says NASA
If the shower happens the right way, it could lead to a spectacular “meteor storm” in which the Earth passes through a particularly dense forest of cosmic rocks, resulting in up to 1,000 shooting stars per hour, according to the Washington Post. .
And as a bonus, the moon will be new and the radiant, or visible direction of the soul, is in the high constellation Hercules in the northern sky. This means that there will be minimal natural light pollution to deal with when looking for shooting stars.
But the celestial show is no guarantee, NASA warned. If the comet that caused the storm has debris traveling slower than 220 miles per hour (321 km / h), “then nothing will reach Earth and there will be no meteors from that comet,” said Bill Cook, who runs the office. NASA’s Meteorological Environment at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in a recent post on the agency’s blog (opens in a new section).
Related: Possible meteor storm offers a chance to hear “shooting stars”
A fireball observed by the CA000P Global Meteor Network camera in Ontario on April 17. (Image credit: Miguel Preciado) (opens in a new section)
Meteors are best seen around 2 am local time and for the best shot to see them, people should move as far away from the city lights as possible. Wear comfortable clothing, hold your hand against mosquitoes and sit on a lawn chair to look up. The best meteor stripes appear far from the radiant.
The original small body of the solar system for this shower is a comet, something like an ice snowball known as 73P / Schwassmann-Wachmann (opens in a new section) or SW3 for short. The comet has been decaying for some time, and nearly 70 pieces have been observed since 2006, although NASA suspects that more fragments are lurking in the solar system.
“If they reach us this year, SW3 debris will hit the Earth’s atmosphere very slowly, traveling only 10 miles [16 kilometers] per second, “the agency warned. Slower meteors tend to produce weaker tracks in the sky, but we may be surprised.
Astrophotographers who want to capture meteors should consult Space.com’s beginner’s guide. But if you can’t catch one this time, don’t worry, as there are many other meteor showers every year. Usually a great bet are the Perseids, whose peak is around mid-August.
Editor’s note: If you take an amazing photo of the Tau Herculi meteor shower and want to share it with Space.com readers, send your photos, comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace.
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