Tau Herculids meteor showers may light up the night sky over North America

NASA said that observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope published in 2009 indicated that some of the fragments were moving fast enough to be visible, intriguing astronomers.

Each year, there are about 30 meteor showers, which occur when the Earth passes through a trail of debris left by a comet or asteroid, which can be seen with the naked eye.

All or nothing happened

Debris from SW3 will hit Earth’s atmosphere more slowly than other meteor showers which is the speed at which the debris hits rather than the volume of debris that causes the shower.

Meteor showers are usually named after the constellation that appears to be shining in the night sky although Robert Lunsford, Secretary-General of the International Meteor Organization, said the Tau Hercules was incorrectly named. It would appear to be radiating from a constellation known as Bootes, he said, northwest of the bright orange star known as Arcturus (alpha Bootis).

“You do not need to look directly at the sky as meteors may appear in any part of the sky. In fact, they are more likely to appear at lower altitudes in the sky since at these altitudes one is looking through a thicker part of the atmosphere when looking directly up” .

More meteor showers

If the tau Herculid shower turns out to be useless, fear not, there are plenty of other opportunities to witness meteor showers this year.

Delta Aquariids are best seen from the southern tropics and will peak between July 28 and 29, when the moon is 74% full.

Interestingly, another meteor shower peaks on the same night – Alpha Capricorn. Although this shower is much weaker, it has been known to produce some bright fireballs during its peak. It will be visible to everyone, no matter which side of the equator they are on.

The Pershaw meteor shower, the most popular of the year, will reach its peak between August 11 and 12 in the Northern Hemisphere, when the moon is only 13% full.