Cosmic shower 'Eta Acuaridas' visible from Spain tonight
Sunday, May 5, 2013 @ 11:20 AM
A COSMIC shower said to be the largest to occur in the spring will be clearly visible for the whole of tonight (Sunday) through to the early hours of Monday morning.
Known as the Eta Acuaridas, the 'stardust' is made up of particles of Halley's Comet, which only comes near the Earth every 75 years, the length of time it takes to orbit the sun.
Although Halley's Comet is in the outer depths of our Solar System at present, it will not be seen again in the sky until the year 2061 – but shards of its 'tail' come away and 'rain' over the Earth twice a year, in May and October.
The Eta Acuaridas travels at 70 kilometres per second – 4,200 kilometres per hour – fast enough to cause its particles to ignite and give the appearance of a cosmic firework display.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com