Hot on the heels of the new moon in Gemini, the Arietid meteor shower is at its peak this week.
These showers return every year and last from late May to mid-June. The shooting star’s performance is expected to peak on or around June 7.
This is cloudy with the shower producing anywhere from 60 to 200 meteors per hour.
Arietids, visible in both hemispheres, is a rare daytime meteor shower, meaning most of the action occurs when the sun is above the horizon, making the sky too bright to see the shooting stars. But all hope is not lost yet, folks.
How to watch
For those willing to wake up and welcome the miracle, the predawn meteors, called “earth shepherds,” can be visible starting 45 minutes before sunrise.
And they are a spectacular sight. Rising close to the horizon, the earthworms are bright, move slowly and leave long colorful streaks behind them.
Because we can have nice things sometimes, this week’s new moon provides a darker sky for better meteor viewing. To see the show, face east and look for meteors leaving the emitter, or point in the sky where they appear to originate, in this case, the constellation Aries.
The meteors will move from the emitter in all directions, and some will even appear to move vertically. While June 7 is predicted to be the best day to see precipitation, visibility rates will remain high through the second week of June.
What is a meteor
It turns out that the shooting stars aren’t stars at all.
Primarily created by the collisions of asteroids (group name), meteors are essentially space junk; chunks of rock and iron that orbit the sun just as planets, asteroids, and comets do. When this glorious remnant travels, it leaves a trail behind it. When Earth passes through these paths, pieces of space debris collide with our atmosphere and burn themselves up. Their dissolution creates streams of light, color and fire in the sky.
National Geographic reports that the quality of these colors depends on what the meteor is made of, “Meteors appear different colors, depending on the chemical composition of the space rock and air it is passing through. A meteorite with a high iron content, for example, will appear yellow. A high-calcium meteor may appear as a purple band of light.
Mythology
The radiation of the Arietid rains and the origin of their name is the constellation of Aries. You will find this constellation in the east before sunrise.
Appropriate for a blazing display at dawn, the myth associated with the cardinal fire sign of Aries is bold and brutal. The royal twins Phrixus and Helle of Boeotia were marked for death by their wicked stepmother, but were saved by a safe sacrifice by a winged ram with golden fleece, sent by their real mother, the cloud nymph Nephele.
On their journey to seek sanctuary in Colchis (present-day Georgia), Helle fell from her mountain and drowned in the Black Sea. Phrixus survived and sacrificed the ram to Zeus in gratitude for his safe passage, the animal’s fleece became the golden fleece of legend and rapture, and the ram became the burning constellation Aries that looks like the birth meteors today.
Astrology 101: Your Guide to the Star
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and reports irreverently on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience.
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Image Source : nypost.com