Alpha Capricornids
Encyclopedia
Alpha Capricornids is a meteor shower
that takes place as early as 15 July and continues until around 10 August. The meteor shower was discovered by Hungarian astronomer
Miklos von Konkoly-Thege
in 1871.This shower has infrequent but relatively bright meteors, with some fireballs. Parent body is comet 169P/NEAT.
Peter Jenniskens
and Jeremie Vaubaillon identified the parent body as asteroid 2002 EX12, which in the return of 2005 was found weakly active near perihelion. This object is now called comet 169P/NEAT
.
According to Jenniskens and Vaubaillon, the meteor shower was created about 3,500 to 5,000 years ago, when about half of the parent body disintegrated and fell into dust. The dust cloud evolved into Earth's path recently, causing a shower with peak rates of 2-5/h, sometimes having outbursts of bright flaring meteors with rates up to 5-9/h. The bulk of the dust will not be in Earth's path until the 24th century. Around 2370 AD, this shower might create an annual meteor storm.
Meteor shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...
that takes place as early as 15 July and continues until around 10 August. The meteor shower was discovered by Hungarian astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
Miklos von Konkoly-Thege
Miklos von Konkoly-Thege
Miklos von Konkoly-Thege was an astronomer and land-owner . -History:He studied astronomy and physics at the universities of Budapest and Berlin. After his studies he continued to visits of the observatories of Göttingen, Greenwich, Heidelberg and Paris...
in 1871.This shower has infrequent but relatively bright meteors, with some fireballs. Parent body is comet 169P/NEAT.
Peter Jenniskens
Peter Jenniskens
Petrus Matheus Marie Jenniskens is a Dutch astronomer and a senior research scientist at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and at NASA Ames Research Center. He is an expert on meteor showers. Jenniskens is the author of the 790 page book "Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets"...
and Jeremie Vaubaillon identified the parent body as asteroid 2002 EX12, which in the return of 2005 was found weakly active near perihelion. This object is now called comet 169P/NEAT
169P/NEAT
169/NEAT is a periodic comet in our solar system. It is the parent body of the alpha Capricornids meteor shower.- External links :*...
.
According to Jenniskens and Vaubaillon, the meteor shower was created about 3,500 to 5,000 years ago, when about half of the parent body disintegrated and fell into dust. The dust cloud evolved into Earth's path recently, causing a shower with peak rates of 2-5/h, sometimes having outbursts of bright flaring meteors with rates up to 5-9/h. The bulk of the dust will not be in Earth's path until the 24th century. Around 2370 AD, this shower might create an annual meteor storm.