This Memorial Day weekend, Earthlings – especially those in North America – may be treated to the sight of another meteorite.
those meteors It could erupt when our planet passes through the pieces of a decaying comet called Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW3). It’s not just a file Exciting opportunity for skywatchers; Cometologists are eagerly waiting for the showdown. According to NASA, a meteor shower can surprise (or disappoint) overnight after Memorial Day (Monday, May 30) and end as early as Tuesday.
SW3 is very close to the sun comet Standards ; It completes an orbit around our star once every five years. In 1995 it began to shatter into dozens of small pieces, leaving behind a cloud of debris that continues to revolve around the Sun.
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We’ve seen separate comets before. According to William Reach, an astronomer at the SOFIA Science Center at the NASA Ames Research Center in California, one in 100 periodic comets — and possibly more — could eventually explode.
famous, in the nineties, Comet Shoemaker Levi 9 Large pieces collapsed and hit Jupiter. But while SW3’s continuous decay looks somewhat similar, the process is “almost not the same,” Rich told Space.com.
Scientists don’t know exactly why comets crash. It could be one or a combination of several factors. The Shoemaker-Levy 9 collapsed under the pressure of Jupiter’s strong gravity, for example. But some other comets can disintegrate when the volatile compounds within them, such as water, rise in temperature, turning from a solid to a gas.
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In addition, the comet’s constant oscillation from the inner solar system to the cooler outer regions places thermal stress on the body. With enough frequent pressure, something might loosen.
Anyway, SW3 is going its separate ways. And over the past few decades, Earth’s orbit has brought our planet closer to traversing the cloud of debris. This year, finally, seems to be the year we’re going through. If this is really the case, a lot of debris will fall from the comet Earth’s atmosphere And they burn like meteors, some of which can be amazing.
Astronomers certainly hope that will happen; They are eager to see the fragments of a celestial body up close. Indeed, an astronomer, Jeremy VaupillonPlan to get even closer by flying in a jet plane over New Mexico and Arizona during a meteor shower.
“Flying over it, even knowing it’s there, shows that the particles survived,” Rich told Space.com. “We don’t really know. Some are frozen and do not survive.”
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When comet fragments enter Earth’s atmosphere, scientists can observe their fragmentation, which can reveal information about their composition. And some of these pieces may come from the depths of a comet, an area astronomers can’t reach just by looking at an object with a telescope.
Additionally, the potential meteor shower provides a rare opportunity for astronomers to get their hands on comet material. In the past, after all, NASA has flown particle sensors through streams of meteorites to collect falling dust from the early days of the solar system.
“It’s basically like doing a space mission, going to a comet and bringing it back, except the comet just shot them here,” Rich said.
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