This long exposure photograph from 2016 shows Orionid meteors streaking across the sky in eastern … [+] Russia. The bright cone of light is not the meteor shower’s parent comet, Halley’s Comet, but rather from a human-operated lantern on the ground. (Yuri Smityuk TASS via Getty Images)
TASS via Getty Images
The most famous comet of all, Halley’s Comet, returns to our inner Solar System every ~ 76 years.
Comet Halley made its most recent approach to the interior of the Solar System in 1986. In this … [+] Long exposure telescopic photography, both the comet’s white dust tail and its blue ion tail are visible. However, the particles that make up a meteor shower are not visible here, but instead originate from the broken fragments of the comet’s nucleus. (F. Carter Smith / Sygma via Getty Images)
Sygma via Getty Images
Using Newton’s gravitational law, Edmond Halley calculated that this comet from 1682 also appeared in 1607 and 1531.
The orbit of Halley’s Comet is largely determined by the Sun and forms an almost perfect ellipse, but … [+] Halley’s comet’s periodicity has ranged from 74 to 79 years, as several close encounters with the outer planets have disrupted its orbit over the centuries. Your 76-year term is just a long-term average.
nagualdesign / Wikimedia commons
In 1705, he predicted the return of the comet in 1758 and every 76 years thereafter, periodically.
This view of Halley’s Comet was photographed from space by the Soviet probe “Vega” in 1986. The … [+] The color gradient shows the progressively decreasing density as the particles are ejected from the comet’s nucleus. (USSR / Link via Getty Images)
fake images
This prediction was confirmed by Johann Georg Pallich, who observed Halley’s Comet on Christmas Day 1758.
Every ~ 76 years, Halley’s Comet returns to Earth’s skies. Halley successfully identified the … [+] appearance of the comet in 1682 with two previous periodic appearances, thus predicting its return in 1758. Although Halley died in 1742, his predictions were not only confirmed in that year, but periodically thereafter, including in a spectacular display in 1910 (Rodolfo Paoletti, L’Illustrazione Italiana, Year XXXVII, No 21, May 22, 1910)
From Agostini via Getty Images
Every 74-79 years, the comet returns: the most recent in 1986 and the next in 2061.
This view of the nucleus of Halley’s Comet was obtained by the Halley Multicolour Camera (HMC) aboard the … [+] The Giotto spacecraft, when it passed within 600 km of the comet’s nucleus on March 13, 1986. The comet was clearly quite active at the time.
ESA / MPAe Lindau
Like all comets, the fragments break off when it approaches the Sun.
A comet’s stream of debris, shown as the thin line between the fragments, traces its orbit. … [+] and lead to meteor showers. Although the entire stream can be millions of kilometers wide, the peak is much narrower. When the Earth crosses the center line, it is a sign that we are at risk of being hit by the parent comet itself, if both it and we occupy the same space at the same time.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / W. Reach (SSC / Caltech)
Comet debris scatters along their orbit, creating meteorites as they encounter our atmosphere.
The debris stream from a comet, such as Comet Encke (shown here) or Comet Swift-Tuttle (which created the … [+] Perseids) or Comet Tempel-Tuttle (which causes the Leonids), is the cause of meteor showers on Earth and on all other worlds in the Solar System. John Couch Adams’s 19th-century identification of Comet Tempel-Tuttle with the Leonid meteor shower was the first link established between these two phenomena.
NASA / GSFC
Earth passes through this debris stream annually in mid to late October, creating the Orionid meteor shower.
Meteorites streak through the night sky during the Orionid meteor shower. Three of the stripes here can … [+] it goes back to the same point in the sky: the radiant meteor shower. This provides evidence that they arose from the same parent organism. The other streak is a satellite or an unrelated meteor. (Yuri Smityuk TASS via Getty Images)
TASS via Getty Images
Unlike most periodic comets, Halley’s Comet crosses Earth’s orbit twice, also giving rise to May’s Eta Aquarids.
This illustration of the orbit of Halley’s Comet shows its periodic motion with respect to the outside. … [+] planets (including Pluto, illustrated by the outermost curve), as well as their inclination to the plane of the Solar System. The orbit actually crosses that of Earth in two places: unusual for a periodic comet. (BSIP / UIG via Getty Images)
Universal Image Group via Getty Images
The link between meteor showers and comets is recent: discovered by John Couch Adams in the 1860s.
A meteor storm is characterized by falling star showers that are so intense that they occur every … [+] a few seconds on average. The 1833 meteor storm, associated with the Leonids, was a legendary outbreak. It was John Couch Adams who first identified and predicted the link between periodic comets and meteor showers.
ADOLF VOLLMY, ENGRAVING 1889
To capture the Orionids, watch the southeastern skies beginning at midnight.
Although Orion is better known as a winter constellation, it rises in the October skies later in the … [+] night. Orionid meteors originate at a point slightly above Betelgeuse if you draw an imaginary line from the belt to this bright red star and radiate across the sky. At its peak, you can expect to see around ~ 30 meteors per hour.
Marc Layer / Geof (L); tonynetone / flickr (R)
All of these meteors originate from the constellation Orion and appear throughout the sky.
The constellation Orion is visible in the upper right of this image, with a bright meteor. … [+] from the radiant of the Orionids captured on the left. Orionid meteors, although they all originate from the same part of the sky, can form a bright streak anywhere in the sky. Wide-field views are always the best for seeing meteor showers.
Mike Lewinski; ikewinski / flickr
The peak produces ~ 30 meteors per hour, occurring from midnight to sunrise on October 21-22.
Here, a bright Orionid meteor can be seen radiating from the constellation Orion, along with its … [+] inherently green color. Meteorites come in a variety of colors and glows, although most will appear faint and white to the human eye. However, proper photographic techniques can often capture details invisible to the naked eye.
Brocken Inaglory / cca-sa-3.0
Only the December Geminids outperform the Orionids for the remainder of 2020.
This short time span of the 2013 Geminid meteor shower shows a common point of origin for all … [+] Geminid meteorites; the “exception” that can be seen is a moving satellite. The December Geminids, along with the August Perseids, are usually the best meteor showers of the year, but others like the Quadrantids, Orionids or Leonids can also be spectacular in a given year.
Asim Patel / Wikimedia Commons
Most Mute Monday tells an astronomical story in pictures, visuals, and no more than 200 words. Talk less; smile more.
