New Meteor Shower in May?

In my last post, I explained what shooting stars are - meteors. Well, there may be a new major meteor shower on the night of May 23/24! Astronomers are not certain if this will be a good meteor shower or not, but it has the potential to be a big one!

2013 Geminid meteor shower by Asim Patel. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Earth will be passing though the debris trails left from Comet 209P/LINEAR, discovered in 2004. On May 6 of this year, the comet made its closest approach to the Sun, and it will be at its closest point to Earth on May 29. It is not bright enough to see with the unaided eye, however. 

Comet 209P LINEAR. Image credit: Remanzacco Observatory

Even though this comet was only discovered in 2004, it has been on a 5 year orbit around the Sun for centuries, so has left behind many debris trails. Earth will not pass through the newest comet trail, however. It will actually pass through the trails the comet left behind between 1803 and 1924 (centuries-old dust!) in May.  The peak activity of this shower is expected to be on May 23/24, Friday night/Saturday morning. Some astronomers estimate that there might be 100 to 400 meteors per hour! Less optimistic astronomers estimate that the shower will be fewer than 100 meteors per hour. 

Click for larger image. Image credit: Stellarium.

Camelopardalis as depicted by Johannes Hevelius in his wonderful
1687 book, called Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia. 

To see the bright trails of falling dust, find a safe, dark viewing spot. A backyard, or better yet, someplace in the country away from city lights, will give you the best chance to see the meteors. Look north, toward the constellation of Camelopardalis, the giraffe. Camelopardalis is a faint constellation, but the surrounding constellations, Cassiopeia and Ursa Major (which contains the Big Dipper) will help you find the direction the meteors will originate from. (See the sky chart above to locate Camelopardalis.) If you gaze at the northern sky between 1:00 and 3:00 AM, hopefully you will be able to see a shower of meteors! Let us know if you caught the show, and we will report back if this meteor shower lived up to its predictions. 

As always, you can learn more about what is happening in space and the night sky by visiting the Dome at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Click here for a complete schedule and show descriptions.