PENNSYLVANIA, USA — The Orionid meteor shower peaks later this week, and skywatchers in our area should have a great view of it. Like all meteor showers, the Orionids are caused by comet dust debris.
"I kind of think of it as the smoky exhaust coming out of a truck leaving a trail behind. If your car or you walk through that, you'll interact with the particles in that exhaust," said Matt Beaky, Juniata College Physics Professor.
Matt Beaky is a physics professor at Juniata College. He tells Newswatch 16 that the Orionids are created by Halley's Comet.
Halley's Comet wasn't discovered by English astronomer Edmond Halley, but he did calculate its orbit and predict its next appearance.
"This was using Newtonian mechanics in the 1600s, a brand new field of physics, and he was exactly spot on. It made his fame and the comet pretty famous, too," said Beaky.
Like all meteor showers, the Orionids are named for where they appear in the sky. The Orionids appear to radiate from near the constellation Orion.
"This hunting figure, this mythological figure, traces all the way back to the Babylonians. So when we are looking at Orion today, we're seeing the same figure that people four to five thousand years ago were looking at and thinking of in a similar fashion," Beaky explained.
The Orionids are a longer-lived meteor shower. We've had viewers say they have already seen some bright streaks in the night sky!
"The fact that there's more than the usual amount of fireballs being reported might mean that we're passing through the part of the dust trail which has a few more larger chunks that's certainly something worth keeping an eye on," said Beaky.
While the science of predicting meteor shower quality is complicated, one major thing working in our favor is a particularly dark night sky, thanks to limited light pollution from the moon.
"The moon phase will be such that the moon will be hardly an issue at all as far as interfering with meteor watching, so as long as the skies are clear, should be a good chance to see a number of meteors on Friday morning," Beaky said.
The Orionids peak between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Friday.
Thanks to the dark night sky, we could see as many as 10 to 20 meters per hour. You don't need any special equipment. Just look up!
See past Skywatch 16 segments on YouTube: