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Heads Up! Aquarid Meteor Shower Peaks Tomorrow Night

The Aquarids are visible from all over the globe

By Gabriel Gache, Science News Editor

5th of May 2008, 07:41 GMT

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Image of a fireball created during a meteor shower

Comet Halley last visited Earth 22 years ago but it left enough debris in its orbit to entertain us with not one, but two annual meteor showers, the Aquarids and the Orionids. The Aquarid meteor shower usually takes place in May while the Orionids come around in October. This year's Aquarid meteor shower is expected to show on May 6th. It might not be the greatest meteor shower of them all, but who can resist a light display of the night sky anyway? Furthermore, you don't even have to worry about location, as with some of the other annual meteor showers.

The eta Aquarid meteor shower will be visible from all over the world, just a few hours before sunrise. Since the Moon is in new phase visibility should be excellent, especially if you watch the meteor shower from a location that is not reached by the city lights. As I said earlier, it will be visible all across the globe, although the southern hemisphere of the Earth will be slightly favored. While the northern hemisphere may experience a peak of 30 meteors per hour, the southern regions of America, Africa and the whole Australian continent should achieve rates as high as 70 meteors per hour.

As you probably already know, meteor showers take their names from the constellation or the star from which they originate. The Aquarid meteor shower takes its name from the eta Aquarii star, located 156 light years away in the Aquarium constellation. In comparison, the eta Aquarii star is some 44 times brighter than our Sun.

The fact that the northern hemisphere will see a slightly smaller number of meteors during the shower is because the Aquarium constellation doesn't usually rise very high in the sky. Alternatively, Earthgrazers may entertain sky watchers in the northern region of the Earth. Astronomers say that these meteorites passing horizontally through the upper atmosphere of our planet should be best viewed between 2:00 to 2:30 a.m. local time, just before the Aquarius constellation rises above the horizon.

The Aquarid meteor shower, originating in the eastern part of the sky, is determined by meteorites hitting the Earth's atmosphere at a velocity of 66 kilometers per second and usually expresses brightness similar to that of 3rd magnitude stars.

TAGS:

comet Halley | meteor shower | Aquarids | Orionids | Aquarius constellation

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