Upwards of 400 meteors could blaze by a unicorn in the sky, experts say. No, really
It could be brief — or nonexistent — but if this mystery meteor shower shows up, scientists agree it’s well worth a watch.
A brief flurry of meteors known as the Alpha Monocerotid shower is slated to arrive Nov. 21 at 11:50 p.m. EST and could last anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes, according to the SETI Institute.
During that time, Sky & Telescope reports the phenomenon is something akin to “a unicorn spitting meteors at the rate of 400 per hour” due to its proximity to the star Procyon in the constellation Monoceros, which is Latin for unicorn.
But only viewers in the eastern United States and southern America will be able to see it, SETI said.
“The shower is not visible at locations further west where Procyon is below the horizon at 04:50 UTC,” according to the institute. 4:50 UST is 11:50 EST and 8:50 PST.
In a post announcing the meteor shower’s return, scientists Esko Lyytinen and Peter Jenniskens suggested observers start around 11:15 p.m. EST and no later than 11:30 p.m. EST.
“Anyone who is going to try to observe should not be late at all,” they said.
Meteor showers are not altogether an uncommon experience. They occur when Earth passes through a collection of debris that’s boiled off the surface of a comet as it passes near the sun, according to NASA.
That debris is left in the comet’s wake, NASA says, meaning Earth will run right into it when their orbits cross.
“As the space rock falls toward Earth, the resistance — or drag — of the air on the rock makes it extremely hot,” according to NASA. “That bright streak is not actually the rock, but rather the glowing hot air as the hot rock zips through the atmosphere.”
But the Alpha Monocerotids are something of a “wildcard” among meteor showers, according to Universe Today.
For starters, scientists don’t know the source of this shower: SETI said the meteors are “in the path of an unknown long-period comet.”
It’s also pretty “elusive,” according to Universe Today.
The last major Alpha Monocerotids shower appeared in 1995, when “observers witnessed a brief outburst topping 400 meteors per hour,” the astronomy site reported.
Before that, the meteor shower appeared in 1985, 1935 and 1925, according to Sky & Telescope.
The 1985 showcase generated a zenithal hourly rate — meaning the number of meteors someone might see “overhead in a dark sky during shower maximum” — of around 700, the astronomy magazine reported.
In the 1920s and 30s, that rate was reportedly more than 1,000.
Scientists thought a shower might occur in 2015, but it never came to pass, according to Universe Today.
This year promises to be different.
“Circumstances are nearly identical to the 1995 outburst when the ZHR briefly reached 400,” Sky & Telescope reported. “Depending on exactly how close Earth passes to the center of the debris trail we could see storm rates like those in 1925 and 1935 — years when the Earth presumably shot directly through the center — or ‘scrape bottom’ with counts closer to 100 meteors an hour.”
Either way, SETI said it should be “a good display” barring the weather is clear and the sky is dark.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Upwards of 400 meteors could blaze by a unicorn in the sky, experts say. No, really."
