Early next week , the Lyrid meteor shower will have its peak , and the Moon being less than half full will not deflower the spectacle too much . If you ’re contrive to learn , you wo n’t ask any specialist equipment . In fact , telescopes or binoculars are often a hindrance to capture meteors .
The efflorescence will be on the night between Monday , April 21 and Tuesday , April 22 , and theInternational Meteor Organizationpredicts about 18 meteoroid an hr at the eyeshade , which is a sizeable number even though it ’s on the smaller side liken to other showers . Just go somewhere dark and reserve your middle about 30 minutes to adjust to slim light ( so no speech sound ! ) .
The reason why the Lyrid shooting star shower remains famous is its history . It occasionally farm a shooting star storm , with several hundred meteoroid falling per time of day – and has done so for millennium . Back in 1803 , ajournalist in Richmond , Virginia , estimated an hourly rate of an incredible 700 space rocks whizzing across the sky . Over 2,000 years ago , in 687 BCE , the Zuo Zhuan , an ancient Chinese narrative history , described a Lyrid shooting star shower where the " stars fell like rainwater . " Descriptions of the Lyrids are also found inAustralian Indigenous uranology , which goes back many more millennium into the yesteryear .
The exact chemical mechanism for the increment in shower is not amply understand . The meteor shower is anticipate the Lyrids as they appear to come from the direction of the Lyra configuration , but meteors are not falling principal . They are lilliputian fragments of asteroids or comet , debris shed by these object during their passage across Earth ’s eye socket .
For the Lyrids , the parent consistency isComet C/1861 G1 Thatcher , a long - period comet , going around the Sun every 415 years or so . Despite the shower going back for chiliad of year , the comet was only discovered at its last close passing in 1861 . Its next one will be in 2276 .
The proximity of the comet is not the crucial actor in the meteor violent storm , however . Planets shift the lead of junk , create overdensities , boost the flux for one season . The last time it happen was in 1982 with 90 comets per 60 minutes , and is expected to happen every 60 years or so . So , we have another 17 years to wait for a particularly dear year , but frankly , a lonely shot star is exciting to see so the chance of seeing 18 in an 60 minutes is not to be overlooked .
