Between midnight and dawn on July 28 — 29, the Delta Aquariids Meteor shower will light up the night sky.As Earth orbits the sun, it encounters the lopsided orbit of a comet, the icy surface of which leaves behind dust and rocks as they boil off from the sun’s heat.
According to NASA, when these space rocks fall toward our atmosphere, the resistance or drag of the air on the rock makes it extremely hot. What we see is a shooting star. That bright streak is not the rock but rather the glowing hot air as the hot rock zips through the atmosphere. When Earth encounters many at once, we call it a Meteor shower.
Suspected to originate from Comet 96P Machholz, the Southern Delta Aquariids Meteor shower occurs any time between July 12 and August 23 annually. This year, it peaks during the nights of July 28 and 29. Alpha Capricornids, a weaker shower, also peaks these same nights. Known to emit bright fireballs during their peak, Alpha Capricornids will be visible for everyone.The Delta Aquariids shower can be best seen from people in the Southern Hemisphere. The Meteor, which tend to number 10 to 20 per hour and fly at 25 miles per second, are most visible between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. in all time zones when the faint constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer the shower’s radiant point is highest in the sky.
NASA said that If you go outside for about 30 minutes before the shower, your eyes can adjust to the darkness. For people living in the Southern Hemisphere, the radiant is closer to overhead; people in the Northern Hemisphere should look to the southern part of the sky. People don’t need to use a telescope, and people don’t have to focus so much on radiant points as the meteors will appear in all parts of the sky.
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