During the next few hours the remains of a comet will hit Earth 60 kilometers per second. The head will be the Swift-Tuttle comet, 26 kilometers in diameter, more than double the object that caused the demise of the dinosaurs when struck Earth about 65 million years ago.
The Swift-Tuttle, discovered in 1862, has been called “the most dangerous object known to humanity” because it is the largest discovered body passing near Earth. It does every 133 years in its movement around the sun, which brings him from a huge cloud of debris believed to be located in the boundaries of the Solar System, known as the Oort Cloud.
Our planet is not in danger and only receive the impact of tiny pieces of the comet, the size of grains of sand, this is leaving in its wake along its orbit.
Research has shown that when a comet approaches the Sun, the solar wind strikes it makes gases and dust arising from its surface. And swarms of particles that orbit the Sun begin to occur.
The last time the Swift-Tuttle passed close to Earth was in 1992, but every year our planet as it moves around the sun crosses areas space where the remains that this comet has left. What happens next is what is known as “shooting stars” or technically meteor phenomenon observed with the naked eye as a spectacular light flashes in the night sky.
The light trails are caused by particles hitting the atmosphere of our planet. Each particle entering the Earth’s atmosphere at tremendous speeds, compresses the air just in front of it, which heats up quickly.
Hot air, in turn, increases the temperature of the particle to about 1,600 degrees Celsius, which is enough to vaporize and cause the phenomenon popularly known as shooting star is generated ., which it happens to almost 100 kilometers above the surface of the Earth
Actually, it was not obvious to the ancient sky watchers that the phenomenon had nothing to do with stars; in fact, they looked as though suddenly the stars fall from the sky.
There are about 30 meteor showers during the year, each associated with a meeting of the Earth and remains of different comets. This week the stars are the Perseids, caused by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
From mid-July and for a month you can see, if we fix our gaze toward the constellation Perseus. In that region of the sky (to which the radiant name is given) we will emerge flashes of light rain. Today and tomorrow will be the busiest days, that is, when the bombing of meteors will be higher, because count up to 100 meteors per hour.
Although not rain of stars more intense, the Perseids are perhaps the most popular, since it is easily noticeable in the Northern Hemisphere since its passage is given in a season of good weather. In Colombia it will also appreciate.
The ancient Chinese, in the year 36 AD and observing the Perseids, as in the Middle Ages, when followers of the Catholic tradition remembered the tears shed by St. Lawrence to be burned at the stake on August 10, 258 AD None of them knew that the blame for the phenomenon was an intrepid comet, after being disturbed, made trips to the inner Solar System, while leaving a trail of his ‘scent’.
To have contact with the universe and its surprising manifestations, you should go to a dark, tall and with good visibility place away from urban concentrations.
In this case no binoculars or telescopes are needed, just you have to look carefully directed toward Perseus, in northwest direction at about 30 degrees above the horizon. Of course, it takes patience to register with eyes the arrival of the Perseids, preferably hours before dawn.
SANTIAGO VARGAS *
TIME
* Ph. D. in Astrophysics, research professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Colombia
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