DECRYPTION – The Earth will pass overnight from Monday to Tuesday in the residue of comet 73P which broke up in 1995.
Should we really expect a “deluge” of shooting stars in the night from Monday to Tuesday? This announcement, which has been circulating a lot on the internet in recent days, should be taken with great care. “All this buzz is stressing me out a bit to be honest”explains Jérémie Vaubaillon, astronomer at the Paris Observatory and recognized specialist in the matter. “I’m afraid that people who expect something fantastic will be disappointed if they don’t see anything, which is unfortunately very possible… All this hype is indeed based on assumptions which, if not totally far-fetched, are far from certain.”
To understand this, let’s perhaps recall in the preamble what showers of shooting stars are. Regularly, the Earth crosses clouds of dust left by comets when they sublimate while approaching the Sun (their ices pass from the solid state to the gaseous state under the effect of solar radiation). When the grains of matter that make up this cloud…
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