Meteor Showers in 2015

If a comet passes close to Earth's orbit, it can produce a meteor shower. Let's just hope we arrive after the comet is long-gone. Earth is traveling through a celestial battlefield. It' a matter of time until one of these cosmic bullets once again collides with our planet. Thankfully, this won't happen in 2015.

The Quadrantid meteor shower can be as intense as the Perseids and the Geminids, but the peak intensity sometimes only lasts hours. The parent body of this meteor shower may be The Great Comet of 1491 (C/1491 B1). Astrophysicists at JPL suggest that this comet may have passed closer to Earth than any other known comet. They will be visible between January 1 and January 10, 2015.

The Alpha Centaurid meteor shower in 2015 will be relatively weak, producing only three meteors per hour. This shower has been observed since 1969. The parent body is unknown.

From January 23 to March 12, 2015 astronomers in the Southern hemisphere will be able to see this relatively weak meteor shower. The radiant is located west of the constellation Lupus. Its peak in 2015 will occur one or two days after the Alpha Centaurid meteor shower.

Several meteor showers will radiate from Virgo between February and May of 2015. They are collectively known as the Virginids. The Alpha Virginid meteor shower peaks each year between April 7 and 18. In 2015, it will be no different. The first recorded observation occurred in 1895.

Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1), a comet with an orbital period of 415 years, is responsible for the Lyrid Meteor Shower. The Lyrids were first recorded by Chinese astronomers on March 16, 687 BCE, making them the oldest known meteor shower. Once every sixty years, the Lyrids can produce hundreds of visible meteors an hour. Although this won't occur in 2015, the Lyrids will still be one of the more spectacular meteor showers of the year.

Comet Grigg-Skjellerup (26P/Grigg-Skjellerup) is responsible for the Pi Puppid meteor shower. The radiant of this meteor shower lies in the direction of the constellation Puppis.

The meteors in the Eta Aquariids are from Halley's Comet (1P/Halley). Halley's Comet does not currently have an orbit that brings it near enough Earth orbit to produce a meteor shower, but this was not the case centuries ago. The radiant of this meteor shower is north of the constellation Aquarius, near Eta Aquarii, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. They will be visible from April 19 to May 26 of 2015.

In 2006, calculations showed that Earth wouldpass through dust trails left by Comet 209P / LINEAR on May 24, 2014 (Jenniskens, 2006). The peak activity of this new meteor shower, which by most accounts would produce hundreds of meteors an hour, occured around 7:30 UT / GMT (3:30 AM ET, 12:30 PCT). However, in 2014 it disappointed. Only a few meteors were visible, the entire night. The radiant of this meteor shower in 2015, will remain in Camelopardalis, a constellation close to the north celestial pole.

Rivaled only by the Zeta Perseids, the Arietids are the most intense daytime meteor shower. The parent body is unconfirmed, but astronomers suspect it is asteroid 1566 Icarus or Comet Machholz (96P/Machholz). This meteor shower radiates from the constellations Aries and Perseus and has been known to produce upwards of sixty meteors an hour. It could be one of the more spectacular meteor showers in 2015.

In 1916, there was an outburst of this meteor shower. The previously unknown meteor shower has been relatively weak since. The parent body is Comet Pons-Winnecke (7P/Pons-Winnecke), a Jupiter-Family Comet that orbits the Sun once every 6.37 years.

This meteor shower is produced by Marsden and Kracht Sungrazing comets. Its meteors will bevisible from July 21 to August 23, 2015. Their radiant lies near Delta Aquarii, one of the brightest stars in the constellation Aquarius. It produces between fifteen and twenty visible meteors per hour. This meteor shower was first observed in 1870.

In 1871, a Hungarian astronomer first observed the Alpha Capricornids. Its parent body was later determined to be Comet 169P/NEAT. According to the astronomers who connected it to 169P/NEAT, this meteor shower was created 3,500 to 5,000 years ago when about half the parent body disintegrated. It will bevisible from July 11 to August 10, 2015.

Comet Swift-Tuttle (109P/Swift-Tuttle), a comet that takes 133 years to orbit the Sun, is the parent body of the Perseid meteor shower. This meteor shower was first recorded in August of 36 CE by Chinese astronomers, but credit for its modern identification was given to Adolphe Quetelet in 1835. This meteor shower will be visible from July 13 to August 26, 2015.

This weak meteor shower in 2015 will radiate from the star Kappa Cygni in the constellation Cygnus.

The Draconids are best viewed after sunset. It produced two of the most intense meteor storms of the 20th century, in 1933 and 1946, with thousand of meteors visible per hour. The Draconid meteors were created by Comet Giacobini-Zinner (21P/Giacobini-Zinner), a Jupiter-Family Comet that take 6.62 years to orbit the Sun.

The Southern Taurids are the result of dust and debris left by Comet Encke (2P/Encke), a Jupiter-Family Comet that orbits the Sun quicker than any other comet. Encke and the Taurids may be part of a much larger comet that disintegrated between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago. The Southern Taurids will be visible from September 7 to November 19 in 2015. Some astronomers have claimed that the explosion of an object in mid-air over the Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908 was a large Taurid meteorite.

The Delta Aurigids will bea relatively weak meteor shower in 2015.

Halley's Comet (1P/Halley) can lay claim to the Orionids, which will be visible from October 4 to November 14, 2015. Some years, upwards of 70 Orionids per hour are visible to the unaided eye. It will be one of the larger meteor showers in 2015. After meteor showers were known to be produced by comets, A.S. Herschel was the first to predict a meteor shower. The shower he predicted was the Orionids.

The Leo Minorid meteor shower will only produce one or two meteors an hour in 2015. The shower is the byproduct of Comet C/1739 K1. Its meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Leo Minor.

The dust and debris trail associated with Comet Encke (2P/Encke) has divided into two major sections. The northern Taurids will be visible from October 19 to December 10, 2015. They peak nearly a month after the Southern Taurids.

The Leonids are one of the most reliable large meteor showers each year. This annual shower has produced some of the most intense meteor storms in known history, including one in 1833 during which "thousands of meteors an hour" were visible in some parts of the United States. Comet Tempel-Tuttle (55P/Tempel-Tuttle), a comet that takes 33 years to orbit the Sun, is the parent body of the Leonids. In 1366, Comet Tempel-Tuttle passed .0229 AU from Earth, one of the closest "near misses" by any comet in the past 1,000 years. The first recorded observation of the Leonids was in 902 CE. In 2015, the Leonids will be visible from November 5 to November 30.

The parent body of this weak meteor storm is unknown. It is thought to be a long-period comet.

The Phoenicid meteor shower was identified in December of 1956 after an outburst of nearly 100 meteors within an hour. In 2015, it will radiates from the southern constellation Phoenix in early December. The parent body may be 289P / Blanpain (formerly D/1819 W1).

The Monocerotid meteor shower will be a relatively weak meteor shower in 2015.

The parent body of the Geminid Meteor Shower is 3200 Phaethon, an extinct comet that is now classified as an asteroid. It was first observed in mid-December of 1862 radiating from the constellation Gemini. In recent years, the Geminid Meteor Shower has become more intense producing a maximum of 100 - 120 meteors an hour. It will be one of the better meteor showers in 2015.

This minor shower was first detected in 1959 by Richard Eugene McCrosky and A. Posen as part of the Harvard Radio Meteor Project. This meteor shower has similarities to the Leo Minorids.

This minor meteor shower was first observed over the course of several years during the early part of the 20th century. In 1945, the Ursids produced upwards of 165 meteors an hour and attracted the attention of other astronomers who eventually determined the parent body, Comet Tuttle (8P/Tuttle). The Ursids will be observable from December 17 to December 23, 2015.