Tau Herculid meteor shower could see thousands of shooting stars from comet SW3

Stargazers might be in for a treat next week as Earth is expected to pass through the scattered remains of a comet, causing a meteor shower.

The shower, which has been named the tau Herculid shower, is forecast to peak on the night of May 30 and into the early morning of May 31, according to NASA.

It’s been described as a newcomer in terms of meteor showers. For context, meteor showers are generally the result of Earth passing through the “tail” of a comet—a vast cloud of gas and dust released from the comet as it passes near to the sun.

Debris inside this cloud can streak through the Earth’s atmosphere at enormous speeds—dozens of miles per second. The intense heat generated by the debris slamming into our atmosphere makes the debris glow intensely, which is what causes them to streak brightly across the sky.

Some meteor showers are regular, occurring at more or less the same time every year due to the comet’s and Earth’s orbits around the sun. The Perseid meteor shower, for instance, is visible from mid-July each year, before peaking in August.

Meteor Shower

The tau Herculids are slightly different. This meteor shower, if it happens, will be caused by the comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann or SW3.

Discovered by German astronomers Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann in 1930, the comet was faint and disappeared from sight until the late 1970s, according to NASA. Then, in 1995, astronomers realized it had suddenly become about 600 times brighter and that it was visible with the naked eye.

What had happened was that the comet had broken up into pieces, and since then it has continued to shatter. When it passes us again this year, astronomers think some of this debris will come into contact with Earth, producing a meteor shower.

It’s not certain, however. For one thing, the debris will be travelling at an estimated 10 miles per second, which sounds blindingly fast but is actually relatively slow for a meteor. This slow speed means the debris might not shine particularly brightly.

It’s also not known exactly how much debris will end up streaking into our atmosphere. The Space Weather Archive blog states the shower could involve 1,000 meteors per hour or none at all.

On the other hand, the conditions will be good for shower viewing. In North America, the shower’s radiant—the location of the sky from which it appears to be coming—will be high in the sky at peak time. Plus, there’ll be a new moon, so natural light pollution is expected to be low.

“This is going to be an all or nothing event,” said Bill Cooke who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, in a press release. He said the shower’s intensity will depend on the speed of the debris.