SANFORD, Fla. - A comet that broke apart 27 years ago is adding some intrigue to what is usually a rather modest meteor shower this year, with potential for a spectacular display of shooting stars Monday night.Or, astronomers said, it could totally wash out leaving relatively blank skies for eager meteor shower gazers.The meteor shower is courtesy of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 – also abbreviated SW3.
The comet was discovered in 1930 and had since made routine mundane trips around the sun every 5.4 years as a faint comet and the source of the annual but tepid Tau-Herculids meteor shower in late May. WHO WAS JAMES WEBB?
THE NAMESAKE BEHIND THE SPACE TELESCOPE That is, until 1995 when suddenly the comet became considerably brighter. Astronomers realized the comet had broken apart.Hubble Images (top): NASA, ESA, H.
Weaver (JHU/APL), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (STScI); Ground-Based Image (bottom): G. Rhemann and M. Jager (NASA / ESA) Fast-forward to 2022 and astronomers said for the first time, the Earth’s orbit looks like it will interact with some of the comet’s larger leftover debris.THESE PHOTOS OF THE SUN WILL PUT YOUR 4K TV TO SHAME"The possible encounter with debris from this comet is different in that most meteor showers are created from very fine grain size particles," Derek Demeter, the director of the Emil Buehler Planetarium at Seminole State College of Florida told FOX Weather. "The debris from this comet is much larger, ranging to the size of small pebble sized dust and ice which can increase the chance of seeing some very bright meteors."Ground-based color composite image of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 fragments B and G on April 21, 2006 made with a 8" f/1.5 Schmidt Camera. (M.