Good observations this year of the Eta Aquarids meteor shower.

“Radiant” eta aquarid. – OAN

MADRID, April 30. (EUROPE PRESS) –

This will be a good year for observing eta aquarids as New moonOn May 8, the meteor shower will continue with night darkness at its zenith, from May 5 to 6.

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower is visible every year from April 19 to May 28. They are best observed from tropical locations such as the Canary Islands and the southern hemisphere, although they can also be observed in the northern hemisphere.

The Eta Aquarids are associated with Halley’s Comet., like the Orionid meteor shower that occurs in October. Eta aquarid meteors have an activity rate of 40 to 85 meteors per hour and a fairly high speed of about 66 kilometers per second. This was reported by the National Astronomical Observatory (OAN).

For mid-latitude observers, the Eta Aquarid radiant is above the horizon from four hours after midnight until dawn.

TRAIL OF COMET HALLEY

The Eta Aquarid meteors are fragments of Comet 1/P Halley. Halley’s Comet orbits the Sun every 76 years and was last seen from Earth in 1986. As it does every year around this time, Halley’s Comet orbits the Sun every 76 years. The Earth passes through a ring filled with debris from Halley’s Comet. When one of these fragments (or meteoroids) comes into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere, it burns up due to friction with the air, thereby creating the luminous glow we know as a meteor or shooting star. Halley’s Comet is also the source of another meteor shower, the Orionids. which reach their maximum around October 21st.

The corresponding meteor shower appears to have a single center of origin—the point from which all shooting stars emerge. This point is called the “radiant” and its location is used to name the meteor shower. Thus, the eta Aquarids have a radiant in the star of the constellation Aquarius.