Meteor Showers: Zoom Astronomy

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Enchanted Learning
All About Astronomy

Site Index

Our Solar System							Stars	Glossary	Printables, Worksheets, and Activities
The Sun	The Planets	The Moon	Asteroids	Kuiper Belt	Comets	Meteors	Stars	Astronomers	Printables, Worksheets, and Activities

Comets

Introduction to Comets	Crossing a Comet's Orbit: Meteor Showers	Comet Origins	Major Comets	Acitvities, Web Links

CROSSING A COMET'S ORBIT: METEOR SHOWERS
radiant

The Earth passes through the orbit of some comets. When this happens, the left-over comet debris (rocks, etc.) bombards the Earth and they burn up in our atmosphere. This is called a meteor shower. In it, many meteors fall through the atmosphere in a relatively short time and in approximately parallel trajectories.

Each meteor shower occurs at a predictable time each year. Meteor showers are named after the constellation they seem to originate from (their radiant). The next HUGE meteor shower (a meteor storm) will be the Leonid shower of November, 1999, which is expected to produce up to thousands of meteorite each hour.

Meteor Shower	Approximate Dates	Date of Maximum	Approximate Hourly Rate of Meteors	Velocity km/sec	Parent Comet
Quadrantids (visible by Boötes)	Dec. 8-Jan. 7	Jan. 3	40-60	42	unknown
Lyrids	Apr. 16-25	Apr. 22	10-15	48	Thatcher 18611
Eta Aquarids	April 21-May 12	May 5-6	20-50	66	Halley (periodic)
Delta Aquarids	July 14-Aug.18	July 28-29	20	41	unknown
Perseids	July 23-Aug. 22	Aug. 12	50-75	60	Swift-Tuttle (periodic)
Orionids	Oct. 15-29	Oct. 21-22	20-25	66	Halley (periodic)
Southern Taurids	Sept 17-Nov. 27	Oct. 30- Nov. 7	10-15	x	Encke (periodic)
Leonids	Nov. 14-20	Nov. 17-18	15-80+++	71	Tempel-Tuttle (periodic)
Geminids	Dec. 6-19	Dec. 13-14	50-85	35	Asteroid #3200 Phaeton
Ursids	Dec. 17-25	Dec. 22	15	34	Tuttle

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