Was there a tau Herculids meteor storm Monday night? The science weighs in - The Weather Network
Astronomers figured this was going to be an all-or-nothing event. It appears to have fallen somewhere in between.
www.theweathernetwork.com
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the tail of a comet. The 'shooting stars' are small bits of debris burning up in the Earth's atmosphere. A comet's tail can be many millions of miles long, so certain meteor showers occur on or about the same calendar day every year, often when decades or centuries have passed since the comet's most recent appearance.
Earth MIGHT pass through a more dense portion of the tail of comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3, which broke apart in 1995, sometime around 1:00 AM Eastern time on Tuesday morning. It MIGHT be a spectacular light show, or we might see next to nothing, especially in the city.
Last edited:
