In a couple of days, Earth will pass through debris left behind by a comet

May 21, 2014 12:13 GMT  ·  By

If astronomers are right – and they usually are, so chances are that their claims are not completely out of touch with reality this time either – a major meteor shower will occur this coming weekend.

The meteor shower in question should begin on Friday night and last until Saturday morning. Word has it that, given a clear sky and the right location, folks might observe somewhere between 100 and 400 meteors per hour.

By the looks of it, people in Canada and in the United States will get front-row seats to this show. Still, the shower should be visible from other regions as well.

Huffington Post tells us that the show, dubbed the Cameloparladid meteor shower, is expected to occur as planet Earth moves through debris left behind by Comet 209P/LINEAR, and that it is the first of its kind.

In case anyone was wondering, the Cameloparladid meteor shower owes its name to the fact that its point of origin will appear to be the constellation Camelopardalis close to the sky`s north pole.

Comet 209P/LINEAR was discovered back in 2004, and, for the time being, astronomers do not know all that much about the debris that it leaves behind as it travels through space and that Earth is expected to come fairly close to this coming weekend.

Thus, it is presently unclear whether the comet has parted with bits and pieces of material that are big enough to put on a show when they enter Earth's atmosphere and catch fire, or if maybe the debris is largely made up of dust.

However, specialists argue that, according to information at hand, the upcoming Cameloparladid meteor shower will be quite a sight, maybe even more impressive than the Perseid meteor shower we have grown accustomed to.

“Over the past 15 or 20 years, astronomers have done a very good job at figuring out, ‘OK, here's where the debris streams will lie.’ I'm thinking the odds are pretty good we'll get something nice May 24,” says Rich Talcott with Astronomy magazine.

Interestingly enough, astronomers say that, on May 29, Comet 209P/LINEAR will be courteous enough to pay us a visit itself. Thus, on this date, the comet is expected to pass within 9 million kilometers (approximately 5.6 million miles) from our planet.

This distance is said to be the closest that this comet has come to our planet in recent years. Still, specialists stress that there is nothing to worry about, and that a collision is out of the question.