Alpha capricornids

Alpha Capricornids

Alpha Capricornids is a meteor shower that takes place as early as July 15 and continues until around August 10. The meteor shower was discovered by Hungarian astronomer in 1871.

Peter Jenniskens and Jeremie Vaubaillon identified the parent body as asteroid 2002 EX12, which in the return of 2005 was found weakly active near perihelion. This object is now called comet 169P/NEAT.

According to Jenniskens and Vaubaillon, the meteor shower was created about 3,500 to 5,000 years ago, when about half of the parent body disintegrated and fell into dust. The dust cloud evolved into Earth's path recently, causing a shower with peak rates of 2-5/h, sometimes having outbursts of bright flaring meteors with rates up to 5-9/h. The bulk of the dust will not be in Earth's path until the 24th century. Around 2370 AD, this shower might create an annual meteor storm.

Notes

Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Capricornids