What are the Orionid Meteor showers that are peaking on October 21, 2009 named for?
The Orionid meteor shower takes place every year, peaking around October 21. It is strongly visible and typically spits out up to twenty speeding yellow or green meteors an hour. Orionid is the name of the meteors’ radiant, which is the point in the sky from which they appear to originate. Cometary meteors may be seen all over the sky but their lines of motion will invariably point to their radiant. The radiant of Orionid meteors is located near the constellation Orion, and its showers are caused by the famous Halley’s Comet, which last zipped past us in 1986 on its 75-76-year orbit. Sources: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.
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 speed on parallel trajectories. Most are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all meteoroids disintegrate and never hit the Earth’s surface. Fragments which do contact Earth’s surface are called meteorites. Intense or unusual manifestations of meteor showers are known as “meteor outbursts” and “meteor storms”. Contents [hide] * 1 The radiant point * 2 The origin of meteoroid streams * 3 The dynamical evolution of meteoroid streams * 4 Notable meteor showers o 4.1 Perseid and Leonid meteor showers o 4.2 Other notable meteor showers * 5 Extraterrestrial meteor showers * 6 See also * 7 References * 8 External links [edit] The radiant point Because meteor shower particles are all traveling in parallel paths, and at the same velocity, they will all app
