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The astronomy town of the global village is now eagerly awaiting May 30th. The new Tau Hercules meteor shower in 2022 is predicted to appear on the night of May 30-31.
What’s more, the astronomy community believes the meteor shower has the potential to become the largest annual meteor shower ever recorded. It has the potential to be the most dramatic one since the majestic Leo meteor shower 20 years ago.
The mother of this meteor shower is 73P/Schvassmann-Bachman Comet 3 (hereinfollowing referred to as ‘SW 3’), a periodic comet that orbits the Sun once regarding every 5.36 years. It was first discovered in May 1930 by Arnold Schwasmann and Anno Bachmann of the Hamburg Observatory in Germany, giving it its name.
Comet SW 3 is also a comet with an unusual life. Observation records over the last 30 years show that the comet continues to break apart and fragment. At the end of 1995, the comet began to break down, forming a four-piece comet. Names of 73P-A / Schwasmann-Bachmann 3, 73P-B / Schwasmann-Bachmann 3, 73P-C / Schwasmann-Bachmann 3, 73P-D / Schwasmann-Bachmann 3 respectively , of which the currently brightest comet is comet 73P-C/Schwasmann-Bachman 3 .
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On April 18, 2006, Hubble Space Telescope observations confirmed the collapse into more than 60 fragmented comets. Between May 4 and 6, it was the Spitzer Space Telescope’s turn to image the comet. An infrared array camera (IRAC) was used to observe 45 of the 58 comet fragments.
Altogether, SW 3 ultimately shattered into more than 68 fragments, and when it most recently appeared in March 2017, it continued to shatter as it returned through the inner solar system, showing signs that it was shedding new fragments.
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It is known that various causes act for the comet’s collapse, such as the comet itself being sparsely agglomerated, a large centrifugal force due to rapid rotation, or a high evaporation pressure inside the comet due to solar heat near the sun. Thus, observations of these comets provide astronomers with an important opportunity to study the process and principles of comet decay.
According to orbital data for comet SW 3, it was 9.2 million kilometers from Earth on May 31. This is regarding 25 times the Earth-Moon distance, which is a very close comet distance, but it is not bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. The maximum brightness predicted by NASA is regarding 6.5, which is a brightness that cannot be observed with the naked eye. However, if you go outdoors without light and use binoculars or an astronomical telescope, you can check the appearance of the comet.
Kwang-Sik Lee, Science Columnist [email protected]
