Your chances of seeing a unicorn this workweek are slim , but if you search up on Thursday Nox , you may see something that ’s almost as extraordinary . AsSky & Telescopereports , the upcoming Alpha Monocerotid meteor exhibitor could produce a meteor outburst , which means there could be multiple sprout stars per 2nd cyclosis from the unicorn constellation .
What is a unicorn meteor shower?
There ’s nothing specially magical about the Alpha Monocerotids . They appear to start near the star Procyon , which is next to the configuration Monoceros , the Hellenic name for unicorn .
The shower is known for occasionally packing adense flurryof activity into a brief view window . The meteors appear between November 15 through the 25th of each year , and tip around the 22nd . Several times a century , the exhibitor do by sky gazers to an " flare-up " of shooting principal that lasts less than an hr .
Such an outburst is predicted for 2019 . According to astronomersPeter Jenniskens and Esko Lyytinen , the Earth is on rails to eliminate through a thick portion of the tail of the unknown comet that provides debris for the shower . The conditions are almost the same as they were in 1995 , when the Alpha Monocerotids light up the sky at a rate of 400 meteor per hour , which is approachingmeteor stormlevels . For that reasonableness , the scientists are wait shooting lead to look in the same numbers this fourth dimension around .
How to see the meteor outburst
Timing is crucial if you want to catch the Alpha Monocerotids , even more than with regular meteor showers . The outburst is anticipate to come out at 11:15 p.m. EST and last just 15 to 40 moment . fortunately , the sun will be fully set by then and the crescent moon wo n’t rise until after 2 a.m , creating optimal viewing conditions for the easterly half of the rural area . The shot ace are fast — traveling at 40 miles per second — and they comeat random . Do n’t be surprised to wait a minute between meteor during some parts of the blowup and less than a second at others .
[ h / tSky & Telescope ]
