Professor Don Pollacco, Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, University of Warwick, provides comments on the two reasonable meteor showers expected over the April-May period.

On the April Lyrids Meteor shower:

Professor Pollacco said: “The April Lyrids come to a maximum sometime around the morning of Tuesday 22nd April. In fact, the stream of particles is actually quite “bitty” and so the true maximum is difficult to accurately predict, but observing the shower toward the end of the night is always better.

“The meteors follow a path that associates them with material from Comet Thatcher, and records show that they have been seen since 687 BC - the longest of any meteor shower.

“For this year, the moon is a thin crescent and doesn’t rise until 3:30am and so shouldn’t interfere much with viewing. This shower is renowned for fast moving meteors. In perfect conditions you might see as many as 18 meteors an hour - if you are lucky. To observe these meteors best to have a comfy adjustable chair and lie horizontally to look almost overhead.”

On the Eta Aquariids Meteor shower:

Professor Pollacco said: “The Eta Aquarius peak before dawn on Monday 5th May. While its peak rate is 40 meteors per hour, the meteors seem to originate from the southern constellation of Aquarius, reducing the number we can see from northerly latitudes.

“The meteors themselves have orbits consistent with that of material from the famous Halley’s Comet. Observing this shower is more difficult this year because of the bright moon, but this sets after midnight. Hence, the meteors are best seen in the predawn hours by sitting comfortably and looking south about halfway from the horizon to the overhead position.”

On how meteor showers like these form:

Professor Pollacco added: “As comets orbit the Sun, the heat and radiation pressure evaporates material from the icy cometary nucleus, which we see as a comet’s tail. The gas and dust created stay in the comet’s orbit, even long after the comet has moved on.

“If the Earth passes through the comet’s orbit, any material deposited by the comet could become meteors or shooting stars in the sky. These bodies are usually the size of dust particles, but when they fall into the Earth’s atmosphere, they are traveling so fast that they are vapourised.

“Along the path that the dust particle travels, the gas molecules are superheated and give out light – this is a meteor. We don’t actually see the dust, we instead see its vapourised effects on the molecules. As the Earth is crossing the comet orbit, the meteors all seem to be coming from the same direction – called the radiant."

Image Credit

Thumbnail: Comet 73P (aka) Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3 - Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/W. Reach (SSC/Caltech)

In Text: The Eta Aquariids meteor shower, which peaked in early May this year, was captured in this stunning image by astrophotographer Petr Horálek - Image Credit: ESO/P. Horalek