A rare meteor shower is set to put on a 'spectacular show' in New Zealand skies during the lead up to Christmas.
Modelling carried out by Dr. Jeremie Vaubaillon of l’Observatoire de Paris predicts a meteor shower from comet debris will be visible over Aotearoa on the evening of December 12, 2023. The best time to watch will be between 9pm and midnight.
The debris come from Comet 46P/Wirtanen1, which Otago University geologist Professor James Scott said is just over one kilometre in diameter and orbits the Sun every 5.4 years.
"However, in 1974 and 1980, it passed close to Jupiter, and some of the cometary debris was pushed into Earth’s trajectory. It is only now, more than 40 years later, that this material will intercept Earth in sufficient volume to generate a new meteor shower," Scott told 1News.
He said the debris will appear in the sky as "shooting stars" that will be caused by small rock particles flashing across the atmosphere.
"The flash is caused by the rocks being heated and vapourised as they compress the air in front of them while traversing the atmosphere."
It will be a startling end for the debris which are "billions of years old from near the start of the Solar System".
Scott said the meteor shower will be a rare event as while many of them are annual events, this will be a new meteor shower.
To add to its uniqueness, the well-known Geminid meteor shower will be occurring at the same time.
"Watchers will therefore get two showers at the same time, and therefore likely see 10s of shooting stars per hour from different directions," Scott explained.
The skywatching community is already buzzing, with plans of how best to capture the display on camera and talk of the international community chartering a NASA plane to capture images from the air.
"The fact that it is only visible in the Southern Hemisphere for a short duration that makes this a significant event," Scott said.
He also urged people to visit fireballs.nz for tips on how to install their own meteor capturing cameras.
"While many meteor showers are annual, this one definitely won’t be. So, we recommend that people book it in their calendar, plan to have a good view of the sky, and get ready for a spectacular show."
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