Lyrids

(near HD 166988) (λ☉ = 32°)

The April Lyrids are a meteor shower lasting from about April 15 to April 29 each year. The radiant of the meteor shower is located near the constellations Lyra and Hercules, near the bright star Vega. The peak of the shower is typically around April 22–23 each year.

The source of the meteor shower are particles of dust shed by the long-period Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. The April Lyrids are the strongest annual shower of meteors from debris of a long-period comet, mainly because as far as other intermediate long-period comets go (200–10,000 years), this one has a relatively short orbital period of about 415 years. The Lyrids have been observed and reported since 687 BC; no other modern shower has been recorded as far back in time.

The shower usually peaks around April 22 and the morning of April 23. Counts typically range from 5 to 20 meteors per hour, averaging around 10. As a result of light pollution, observers in rural areas will see more than observers in a city. Nights without the Moon in the sky will reveal the most meteors. April Lyrid meteors are usually around magnitude +2. However, some meteors can be brighter, known as "Lyrid fireballs", cast shadows for a split second and leave behind smokey debris trails that last minutes.

Lyrids shoot at about 47 km/s.

Occasionally, the shower intensifies when the planets steer the one-revolution dust trail of the comet into Earth's path, an event that happens about once every 60 years. This results in an April Lyrid meteor outburst. The one-revolution dust trail is dust that has completed one orbit: the stream of dust released in the return of the comet prior to the current 1861 return. This mechanism replaces earlier ideas that the outbursts were due to a cloud of dust moving in a 60-year orbit.{{cite journal

Shooting stars. This electrical phenomenon was observed on Wednesday morning last at Richmond and its vicinity, in a manner that alarmed many, and astonished every person that beheld it. From one until three in the morning, those starry meteors seemed to fall from every point in the heavens, in such numbers as to resemble a shower of sky rockets ...

Another such outburst, and the oldest known, the shower on March 23.7, 687 BC (proleptic Julian calendar) was recorded in Zuo Zhuan, which describes the shower as "On the 4th month in the summer in the year of xīn-mǎo (of year 7 of King Zhuang of Lu), at night, (the sky is so bright that some) fixed stars become invisible (because of the meteor shower); at midnight, stars fell like rain." In the Australian Aboriginal astronomy of the Boorong tribe, the Lyrids represent the scratchings of the Mallee fowl (represented by Vega), coinciding with its nest-building season.

References

1. Jenniskens, Peter. (2015). "Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets". [[Cambridge University Press]].
2. (18 April 2018). "The Lyrid Shower Kicks Off Year of Great Meteor Watching". F+W Media, Inc..
3. "Lyrids". Meteor Showers Online.
4. (2008). "the Lyrid meteor shower". spaceweather.com.
5. M. Ed. Biot, 1841, Gatalogue General des Etoiles Filantes et des Autres Meteores Observes en Chine pendent 24 Siecles, Paris, Imprimerie Royale; P. Jenniskens, 2006, Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets, Cambridge University Press, 790 pp.
6. Sinnott, Roger W.. (2008). "Meteors – April's Lyrid Meteor Shower". [[Sky and Telescope]].
7. Hill, Tanya. (22 April 2014). "The Lyrids meteor shower should put on a show overnight". The Conversation.
8. [http://www.imo.net/live/lyrids2007/ Lyrids 2007: visual data quicklook] {{webarchive. link. (2012-12-24)
9. [https://archive.today/20130403011743/http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_moonphases.pl?year=2008 U.S. Naval Observatory Phases of the Moon 2008]
10. [http://www.imo.net/live/lyrids2009/ Lyrids 2009: visual data quicklook] {{webarchive. link. (2013-02-02)
11. [http://www.imo.net/live/lyrids2010/ Lyrids 2010: visual data quicklook] {{webarchive. link. (2013-02-02)
12. [http://www.imo.net/live/lyrids2011/ Lyrids 2011: visual data quicklook] {{webarchive. link. (2013-02-02)
13. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140702130034/http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_moonphases.pl?year=2013 U.S. Naval Observatory Phases of the Moon 2013]
14. [http://www.amsmeteors.org/2014/04/meteor-activity-outlook-for-april-19-25-2014/ Meteor Activity Outlook for April 19-25, 2014]
15. (2017-04-20). "Look up! The Lyrid meteor shower peaks this weekend.". [[The Washington Post]].
16. (1994). "The Observer's Guide to Astronomy". Cambridge University Press.