See Lyrids meteor shower on the morning of April 23

According to astronomers, on the morning of April 23, Vietnam will receive the first Lyrids meteor shower in the year with 15-20 meteor stars per hour.

Lyrids meteor shower

Meteor shower is the phenomenon of thousands or even tens of thousands of small meteorites that plunge into the Earth's atmosphere one after another and burn when the Earth reaches an orbit with meteorites . These meteorites are often the result of comets as they pass through our orbit.

Vega and Lyrid meteor shower

Picture 1 of See Lyrids meteor shower on the morning of April 23
Constellation Lyra with bright star Vega.This is where the meteor streaks radiate.

If you follow the Lyrid meteor streaks, you'll see it comes from the area near the bright Vega star . These meteor streaks will follow Vega all night, Vega goes up or down, anyway, the starting point of the meteor streaks follow. This is just a coincidence in the sky, really why Vega and these meteor tracks are not related to each other.

In low latitude areas, Vega stars fall below the horizon to the northeast before 10 pm, and then it will rise gradually and reach the highest point before dawn.

Thatcher Comet - the original celestial body of this meteor shower

Every year at the end of April, our planet Earth passes through the trajectory of the Thatcher comet (C / 1861 G1). We currently have no image of comets that orbit around Sun 415 this year, because the last time it appeared in the sky was in 1861, before the photography became popular.The Thatcher Comet will not return until 2276.

The debris and gas dust of this comet are scattered on its orbit, and as we pass, these fragments will fall into the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of about 177,000 km / h. When traveling at such speeds, they will friction with the air and cause a fire, in the night, we will see them as light streaks gliding quickly in the sky.

If the Earth passes through a larger and denser cluster of dust than usual, it will allow us to see a meteor shower performance.

Picture 2 of See Lyrids meteor shower on the morning of April 23 Artwork: internet

How to observe meteor shower

  1. Please choose a place of observation with a wide field of view, people watching a meteor should choose high ground, far from the city electricity, away from artificial light sources such as street lights to see clearly the light traces passing.
  2. Bring a chair and soft sheet to comfortably watch the galaxy at night.

Ideal time to watch meteor

Lyrids meteor shower is a small rain that takes place from April 16-25, but the peak time is April 22 night to April 23 morning. Before and after this time, viewers can still see a small number of meteors.

After 10 o'clock at night the Lyrids meteor shower will begin the performance and we can see the best before dawn a few hours, because Vega is now up.

Note:

If the sky is cloudy, it will be very difficult to observe this phenomenon.

Meteor shower does not affect the earth as well as human health.