Hit the trail for the Orionid meteor shower

William Atkins
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 17:49

Science - Space

The peak for the 2009 Orionid meteor shower is set for Wednesday morning, October 21st. Sixty or more meteors per hour are expected to be the highs for the event, but you never know how many you'll see from hour to hour?


The meteors from the Orionids come when Earth passes through the "trail" of dusty debris from comet Halley, or Halley’s Comet.

The material from Halley is hurled out dust and other particles from the comet when it gets close to the Sun and its heat evaporates some of the comet’s nucleus.

The brief streaks of visible light, sometimes called “shooting stars,” should be visible in the mid-northern latitudes for the Northern Hemisphere and the mid-southern latitudes for the Southern Hemisphere during the early morning hours before local dawn.

Look toward the southeastern sky in and around the constellation Orion and the constellation Gemini.

The center of the shower, what is called the comet’s radiant, will be just above Orion’s bright reddish-orange star Betelgeuse, which forms part of the shoulder of the constellation Orion.

Take a look at the sky map found at the Science at NASA’s website “The 2009 Orionid Meteor Shower.” [10/19/2009]

Page two continues with additional information on the Orionid meteor shower for 2009.