来自Tau Hercules的令人惊叹的新流星雨可能会照亮北美的天空

天文学家对 5 月 30 日至 31 日可能出现新的流星雨感到兴奋，预计 5 月 30 日晚上和 5 月 31 日凌晨 tau Hercules 流星雨将达到顶峰。

1930 年，德国观测者阿诺德·施瓦斯曼和阿诺·阿瑟·瓦赫曼发现了一颗名为 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 或“SW3”的彗星，它每 5.4 年围绕太阳运行一次。 由于如此微弱，SW3 直到 1970 年代后期才再次被看到，直到 1995 年它看起来非常正常，当时天文学家意识到这颗彗星的亮度增加了大约 600 倍，并从微弱的污点变成肉眼可见的通过了。 经过进一步调查，天文学家意识到 SW3 已经破碎成几块，碎片散落在其轨道上。 到 2006 年我们回来时，它大约有 70 块，从那以后它继续进一步分解。

如果它今年到达我们这里，SW3 碎片将以每秒 10 英里的速度非常缓慢地撞击地球大气层——这意味着陨石比属于宝瓶座流星雨的陨石要轻得多。 但今年北美的观星者特别注意，因为在预期的高峰时间，tau Hercules 辐射将在夜空中很高。 更好的是，月亮是新的，所以不会有月光冲刷掉微弱的流星。

“这将是一个全有或全无的事件。如果 SW3 的碎片与彗星分离时的速度超过每小时 220 英里，我们可能会看到一场漂亮的流星雨，”领导者比尔库克说[{” attribute=””>NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

All the excitement from astronomers and the public has sparked a lot of information about the tau Herculids. Some has been accurate, and some has not.

We get excited about meteor showers, too! But sometimes events like this don’t live up to expectations – it happened with the 2019 Alpha Monocerotid shower, for example. And some astronomers predict a dazzling display of tau Herculids could be “hit or miss.”

So, we’re encouraging eager skywatchers to channel their inner scientists, and look beyond the headlines. Here are the facts:

• On the night of May 30 into the early morning of May 31, Earth will pass through the debris trails of a broken comet called 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, or SW3.
• The comet, which broke into large fragments back in 1995, won’t reach this point in its orbit until August.
• If the fragments from were ejected with speeds greater than twice the normal speeds—fast enough to reach Earth—we might get a meteor shower.
• Spitzer observations published in 2009 indicate that at least some fragments are moving fast enough. This is one reason why astronomers are excited.
• If a meteor shower does occur, the tau Herculids move slowly by meteor standards – they will be faint.

Observers in North America under clear, dark skies have the best chance of seeing a tau Herculid shower. The peak time to watch is around 1 a.m. on the East Coast or 10 p.m. on the West Coast.

We can’t be certain what we’ll see. We can only hope it’s spectacular.