The Tau Herculids meteor shower took place yesterday. While it did not turn into a meteor storm, the sight was still brilliant. Check out these amazing pictures of the event clicked by people all around the world.
As stargazers looked at the sky in anticipation of the Tau Herculids meteor shower, it did not disappoint them. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, many people came out of their homes to view the beautiful meteor shower and even as the event was not a ‘meteor storm’ with more than 1,000 meteors per hour, it was a sight to behold. Unfortunately, people living in the eastern hemisphere, including India, missed out on this spectacular event as it was daytime for them. Many people did check out various live streams to see this event, but if you missed out on watching it live, check out the Tau Herculids meteor shower photos below to experience this rare astronomical event.
Earlier, NASA said that this could be an “all or nothing” event, highlighting that the fragments of the meteor needed to move faster than 321 km/h for us to see anything at all. While it was not an all out event, some of the fragments did cross the threshold and people were able to see many shooting stars across the sky. Space.com translated a tweet by the French Network of Amateur Observers of Meteors (BOAM) who said, “It was not the expected storm, but the Earth clearly crossed a cloud of dust from the comet”.
The Tau Herculids meteor shower comes from a little comet
The Tau Herculids meteor shower was courtesy of the comet SW 3, which was first discovered in 1930 by two German astronomers, Friedrich Carl Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann. In 1995, astronomers observed the SW 3 and found that it was shining 6.5 magnitudes brighter than normal, highlighting a nearly 400 times increase in its brightness. When observed closely, it was revealed that the meteor had fragmented into 4 pieces. Over the years, it kept breaking into more fragments and at present, it is expected to be divided into as many as 70 smaller pieces.
Check these amazing Tau Herculids images
Many people used their telescopes and astronomy cameras to take beautiful Tau Herculids meteor shower images. These pictures showcase a beautiful night sky littered with small glowing pieces of space rock.
If you missed out on this event, do not worry as there is another meteor shower event scheduled for later this year. The Perseids meteor shower will peak around August 11 and 12, and stargazers should mark their calendar for this.