Those who are in the habit of watching the night sky and the meteors would be very much familiar with the term “meteor showers”. As they are not as common in India as in the places wholly in the Northern Hemisphere like America and China, not all people are aware of this annual celestial event.

What are Meteor Showers?

In a meteor shower, a number of meteors–which are the specks caused by meteoroids entering the Earth’s atmosphere- are seen, which appear to originate from one point in the night sky. This one point is called the “radiant” and is located in a particular constellation. A meteor usually appears as a streak of light and so, if many meteors consecutively run across the sky, imagine, it would be like a flashlight shown across the sky.

A meteor shower

Comets and Meteor Showers

Meteor showers are associated with Comets as the meteor showers occur when the orbit of the Earth passes through the Comet’s orbit, thus explaining the annual nature of the meteor showers.  It is the debris which is in the Comet’s orbit, which includes meteoroids, which is basically responsible for the meteor shower at the time when the Earth comes in the path of the orbit.

Zenith Hourly Rate

It is defined as the average number of meteors as seen by the observer in one hour during a meteor shower under perfect conditions like clear sky and less moonlight.

The various Meteor Showers

There are many meteor showers, occurring annually and viewable globally, which are named according to the constellation from which they appear to radiate from, and hence each meteor shower is associated with a particular constellation. Likewise, each meteor shower would also be associated with a particular comet which orbits in that constellation.

Major meter showers visible in most parts of India are the Perseids (from the Persues constellation) , Orionids (from the Orion constellation), Eta Aquarids (from the Aquarius constellation) and the Leonids (from the Leo constellation). The Perseids begins in start of August and reaches a peak of about 50-80 by mid-August, provided the sky is clear and the climate frost-free. In the smae way, the Leonid shower is seen in mid-November, the Eta Aquarids in May and the Orionids in October. Some of the other notable meteor showers seen annually across the Northern hemisphere are Quadrantids (Jan), Geminids (Dec) and the Lyrids (Apr).