The Lyrid Meteors is expected to be visible between Thirsday16 and Saturday 25 April this
year (2020), and will be at peak visibility on Sunday 29 April. With the Full Moon also falling on Friday 19 April, with the New Moon falling four days after this on Thursday 23 April, this year should provide a good opportunity to see these meteors. At its peak the Lyrid Meteor shower typically produces about 20 meteors per hour, though higher rates have been recorded. The Lyrid Meteors take their name from the constellation of Lyra, from which they appear to radiate, at a point close to the star Vega, which will rise at about 10.30 pm local time from most places on Earth this week.
The radiant point of the Lyrid Meteors. Stellarium/Phys.Org.
The Lyrid Meteors are comprised of debris from the comet C/1861 G1
Thatcher (named after the astronomer A. E. Thatcher, not the
politician). This is a long-period comet that spends most of its time in
the Oort Cloud, only visiting the inner Solar System once every 415
years, the last occasion being in 1861. When the comet visits the inner
Solar System it is heated by the Sun, melting the ices that make up its
surface and releasing a trail of dust, which continues to follow the
path of the comet. The Earth passes through this trail in April each
year, creating a light show as the dust particles burn in the upper
atmosphere.
Comet C/1861 G1
Thatcher completes one orbit every 415 years on
an eccentric orbit tilted at 79.8° to the plane of the Solar System,
that takes it from 0.92 AU from the Sun (92% of the
average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 106 AU from the
Sun
(110 times as far from the Sun as the Earth, and more than
three times the distance at which the planet Neptune orbits the Sun).
The comet last visited the Inner Solar System in 1891, and is expected
to return again in 2306. As a comet with an orbital period of more than 200 years it is considered to be a Long Period Comet.
See also...
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