Coma Berenicids is a minor meteor shower

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...

, originating from the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Coma Berenices

Coma Berenices

Coma Berenices is a traditional asterism that has since been defined as one of the 88 modern constellations. It is located near Leo, to which it formerly belonged, and accommodates the North Galactic Pole...

. The shower appears from December 8 to January 23 with the estimated maximum on December 20—29 (approximately). The radiant

Radiant (meteor shower)

The radiant or apparent radiant of a meteor shower is the point in the sky, from which meteors appear to originate. The Perseids, for example, are meteors which appear to come from a point within the constellation of Perseus....

 during that time is at α=165°, δ=+30°. The shower's population index

Population index

The population index indicates the magnitude distribution of the meteor showers. The values below 2.5 correspond to distributions where bright meteors are more frequent than average, while values above 3.0 mean that the share of faint meteors is larger than usual. The value 3.0 have Coma Berenicids...

 is 3.0 with the speed of 64 km/s.

Coma Berenicids were first detected within the framework of Harvard Radio Meteor Project

Harvard Radio Meteor Project

The Harvard Radio Meteor Project is a scientific investigative station based within Harvard university.The Harvard station is investigating data specifically upon the height, the deceleration and the distribution of ionized material within the trail of meteors...

. The shower's existence was discovered by Richard Eugene McCrosky and A. Posen in 1959. Coma Berenicids have an orbit very similar to Leo Minorids

Leo Minorids

Leo Minorids is a weak meteor shower that takes place from October 19 till October 27 each year. With a weak moon the meteor shower may be visible with the naked eye, however this meteor shower is best observed only from the Northern Hemisphere with telescopic plotting...

and were originally referred to as "December Leo Minorids".

External links

• Coma Berenicids data (IAU Meteor Data Center)