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Tuesday, November 5, 2024

A special night awaits us. The maximum of the Orionid meteor shower awaits us

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The maximum of the Orionid meteor shower awaits us next night. Therefore, it is worth turning your gaze towards the sky and looking for “shooting stars”. You can count 20 meteors in an hour.

There is no shortage of astronomical attractions in recent days. Only this week, for several evenings, it could be seen circling over Poland comet C/2023 A3, Starlink telecommunications satellites, and the night sky was illuminated by a super full moon. Earlier we had the opportunity to admire a meteor shower called Draconids, and another one is just ahead.

On the night of October 20-21, the Orionid meteor shower peaks. They are visible in the sky almost throughout October and the first days of November, but the moment of their greatest activity is now. They are one of the most famous meteor showers that we can observe in the Northern Hemisphere.

Light marks may persist for several minutes

You can count 20 meteors, or so-called shooting stars, in an hour. These are light phenomena accompanying the passage of a rock fragment space (meteoroid) through the Earth's atmosphere. Most of such particles burn in the atmosphere, only the larger ones are able to reach the surface of our planet and after falling we find them as meteorites.

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The Orionids are known for their brightness and speed. Shards of space rocks fly through the Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to 66 kilometers per second, sometimes leaving behind luminous trails that last in the sky for up to several minutes.

The radiant of the shower, the point from which meteor flashes seem to spread, rises before midnight and is highest in the sky around 2 a.m. It lies close to Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. For observation, it is worth finding a place away from the city or street lights.

Where do the Orionids come from?

The pieces of space junk that interact with our atmosphere to form the Orionids come from comet 1P/Halley. Each time a body passes through our regions of the solar system, it leaves behind pieces of ice and rock along its orbit that intersects Earth's. As the debris enters the atmosphere, it becomes a meteor shower – the Orionids in October and the Eta Aquarids in May.

Halley's Comet takes about 76 years to orbit the Sun once. She was last seen in 1986, which means she won't visit us again until 2061.

space.com, PAP, tvnmeteo.pl

Main photo source: Adobe Stock



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