A meteor is a bright streak of light in the sky (a
"shooting star" or a "falling star") produced by the entry
of a small meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere. If you have a dark clear sky
you will probably see a few per hour on an average night. During one of the
annual meteor showers you may see as many as 100/hour. Very bright meteors are
known as fireballs - if you see one please report it.
Meteor showers are formed usually by the dust particle or
debris left by comets.
As illustrated in above picture, the Preseids Meteor shower
origins from Comet Swift Tuttle and we see the meteor shower radiant from
Constellation Preseus, Hence the name.
One might get frustrated trying to experience a meteor
shower as it is not similar to raindrops falling. Usually, a very good meteor
shower would produce around 120 meteors per hour. i.e. around 2 per second.
However, the meteors, though originating from a precise location, could appear
anywhere in the sky as the location it enters the atmosphere and the size of
the particle would be the deciding factor of whether we would be able to
observe it. Usually, Meteor showers are best visible during very dark time of
the night and with less light pollution - a full moon is a big negative factor
to observe a meteor shower.
There are many meteor showers that occur during a calendar
year and some of the famous ones happen in January, August and December. Some
are listed below
January - Quadrantid Meteor Shower - Usually peaks around
January 2nd
April - Lyrid Meteor Shower - Usually peaks around 22nd
April
August - Preseids Meteor Shower - Peaks around 12th August
October - Orionoids Meteor Shower - Leftovers from Comet
Halley - peaks around 21st October
December - Geminid Meteor Shower - One of the Brighter
showers - usually peaks around 13th December
Below is a meteor that was caught on tape on 2nd June 2018 - suspected Daytime Arietids Meteor Shower !!
Below is a meteor that was caught on tape on 2nd June 2018 - suspected Daytime Arietids Meteor Shower !!
There are many more meteor showers that happen during a year
and all are communicated to the alert application for the benefit of Sri Lankan
public.
