NASA expects brightest meteor shower on May 30-31 as tau Herculids nears Earth

month of May will end with a cosmic surprise thanks to a comet that is w being torn apart. According to NASA, night of May 30 and early morning of May 31 will bring a powerful meteor shower courtesy of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann or SW3. NASA says that upcoming meteor shower named tau Herculids might be one of brightest ones lighting up sky this year. 

Story of tau Herculids meteor shower

tau Herculids meteor shower is a result of debris cloud that resulted from fragmentation of  73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann (SW3) comet. After its discovery in 1930, comet disappeared until reappearing in 1970s. After its re-discovery, comet looked rmal until 1995 and was hard to spot without a telescope. However, furr monitoring revealed that comet had become about 600 times brighter and was relatively easier to spot with naked eye. 

astromers confirmed that  comet's brightness was a result of SW3's fragmentation as it had shattered into several pieces and was leaving an orbital trail made of its own debris. astromers ted that comet was in about 70 pieces when it approached Earth in 2006 and has continued to fragment furr since n.

NASA expects a meteor display on May 30-31

NASA has said that if meteors make it to Earth this year, y would enter Earth's atmosphere at a relatively slower velocity, approximately 16 kilometres per hour. upcoming meteor shower is expected to be fairly radiant as it will be high in night sky during peak time and since sky would be Moon-less, event would be much easier to spot in rrn hemisphere.

"This is going to be an all-or-thing event. If debris from SW3 was travelling more than 220 miles per hour (354 km per hour) when it separated from comet, we might see a nice meteor shower. If debris had slower ejection speeds, n thing will make it to Earth and re will be meteors from this comet", Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, said in a report.