On Saturday come Draconids! Do not worry, this is not an invasion from outer space;) Though ... It has been what to do with the fact that things come from outer space to Earth. Fortunately, there are no nasty aliens, but shooting stars. A lot of shooting stars, perhaps.
When it comes to shooting stars, then you know most of the Perseids , which make each year in summer the nights are romantic or the Leonids, which are seen in November and have already taken care of some of the most spectacular "meteor storms", where tens of thousands of meteors per hour were visible.
A meteor is the visible sign of a collision of Earth with a tiny cosmic dust particles. Something out there buzzing around everywhere and with a little patience and a clear sky can be seen almost every night a shooting star. Sometimes, however, the earth passes through on their way to the sun particularly dusty regions of the solar system and then there are many shooting stars in a short time. It's called "meteor" or meteor showers. The comet dust have caused. When coming close on their way through the solar system the sun, then melts the ice contained in them and escapes into space. It pulls a lot of rock dust with the then forms the magnificent tail of the comet. On his rounds around the Sun, the comet can be a real trail of filth behind him and when the Earth crosses a trail by chance, then there is a meteor shower.
Leonids, Perseids - ok, you might know. But of the "Draconids" is rarely heard and even me they were only a vague concept. What makes them so special this year? The Draconids (after the constellation "Dragon") are also called "Giacobiniden" because the comet Giacobini-Zinner are generated. He is a short-period comet, for one revolution around the sun it needs only a little over six and a half years. It belongs to the "Jupiter family", which means that the aphelion point of its orbit is at the height of the orbit of Jupiter. Giacobini-Zinner, the earth - comparatively - come close.
That was the case for example in 1946 when the comet approached up to 0.26 astronomical units of the earth (but still representing more than 100 times the distance between Earth and Moon). Comparable close he will come back to the earth until 2078 (it is all the data here ). If you "come close" to the slightly more generous interpretation, then come close to Earth and comet every 13 years (that's two orbital periods of Giacobini-Zinner). Then the earth is still far from the tiny comets (its core has a diameter of only about 2 kilometers) away, but the dust cloud caused by him to meet. The dust trail of comet while it crosses every October, but if the comet just before the earth was just here, and has filled the dust reservoir, then it can really get to large meteor showers.
1946, when the two were very close, it has been observed up to ten thousand meteors per hour. 13 years ago, in 1998, one could see at least another 700 shooting stars per hour ( Arlt, 1998 ). Whether it is as spectacular this year will again be seen. Unfortunately reached Giacobini-Zinner closest to the Sun until Febraury 2012, he comes this time so too late for a rendezvous with the Earth's path crosses in front of him. But , the earth comes this time of the dust lane very close to the comet at a not too distant earlier passage has left (Who can interpret scientific graphs, can this presentation view) and this might already be enough to put a nice fireworks shooting stars from the sky. Forecasts predict an event rate of up to 600 meteors per hour!
So opens his eyes! The show will take place on Saturday, the 8th October. The highlight of the meteor activity is expected to clock in the evening between 8 and midnight - (! Definitely better than watching TV) So the perfect entertainment for the Saturday evening. You need to not have telescopes, binoculars not only your eyes, a comfortable place with good visibility and warm clothing. If the weather cooperates, I'll definitely be there and see what there is to see!
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