There will be two meteor showers throughout the last few days of July, which will brighten the night sky.
According to EarthSky, the first meteor shower, the Delta Aquariids, is expected to peak on Friday at 6 a.m. ET (10 a.m. UTC). It rises in the middle of the night, reaches its peak brightness at two in the morning local time, and then descends to the horizon by daybreak. This is where meteor tracks appear to originate.
The frozen surface of a comet, whose uneven orbit Earth encounters as it travels around the sun, spews out rocks and dust as it is heated by the sun. According to NASA, these space rocks become incredibly heated when they approach our atmosphere due to “the resistance — or drag — of the air on the rock makes it extremely hot.” A “shooting star” is what we can see. The glowing hot air that is being carried through the atmosphere by the hot rock, not actual rock, is what is visible as a dazzling streak.
“When Earth encounters many meteors at once, we call it a meteor shower.”
The Southern Delta Aquariids meteor shower happens any time between July 12 and August 23 every year and is thought to be caused by Comet 96P Machholz. According to NASA, it is most visible from southern latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. EarthSky stressed that a dark sky without the moon is essential. The moon will barely be 1% full during the peak, which is appropriate.
According to EarthSky, the meteor shower’s radiant point, the faint constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer, is highest in the sky between 2 and 3 a.m. in all time zones. This is when the meteors, which typically number 10 to 20 per hour and fly at 25 miles per second (41 kilometres per second), are most visible. Persistent trains, which are luminous, ionised gas trails that persist for a split second or two after the meteor passes, are left by 5–10% of Delta Aquariid meteors.
According to NASA, if you spend roughly 30 minutes outside before the rain, your eyes will become used to the darkness. The radiant is closer to overhead for individuals in the Southern Hemisphere; those in the Northern Hemisphere should look to the southern hemisphere of the sky. There is no need for a telescope. NASA advised finding a location away from artificial illumination, lying flat on your back, and taking in as much of the sky as you can for the best viewing.
How to watch the Alpha Capricornids meteor shower
According to the American Meteor Society, the Alpha Capricornids meteor shower, which peaks on Saturday and Sunday while the moon is just 5 percent full, will come after the peak of the Delta Aquariids meteor shower.
According to the society, this shower is not particularly powerful and hardly ever produces more than five meteors each hour. However, during its peak, Alpha Capricornids frequently emits brilliant fireballs that are equally visible from either side of the equator.
The year’s additional space events
The EarthSky 2022 meteor shower guide lists further meteor showers that you can see in the remaining months of 2022:
August 13: Perseids
October 9: Draconids
October 21: Orionids
November 5: South Taurids
November 12: North Taurids
November 18: Leonids
December 14: Geminids
December 22: Ursids
The Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts there will be five additional full moons in 2022:
August 11: Sturgeon moon
September 10: Harvest moon
October 9: Hunter’s moon
November 8: Beaver moon
December 7: Cold moon
The Old Farmer’s Almanac also predicts that a partial solar eclipse and one more total lunar eclipse will occur in 2022. People in Greenland, Iceland, Europe, northeastern Africa, the Middle East, western Asia, India, and western China will be able to see the partial solar eclipse on October 25.
The complete lunar eclipse on November 8 can be observed between 3:01 a.m. ET and 8:58 a.m. ET in Asia, Australia, the Pacific, South America, and North America. However, the moon will be setting at that time for those in eastern North America.
To safely witness solar eclipses, put on the appropriate eclipse glasses because the sun’s brightness might harm the eye.