The unpredictable June Bootid Meteor Shower

 I know we are in summer and that it does not get dark until very late in the evening but there is the possibility of seeing one of the most unpredictable meteor showers of the year this week.

On the night of June 27^th/28^th the June Bootid meteor shower will be active. Normally not a very inspiring meteor shower, occasionally in the past  it has sprung surprises on astronomers. Could this happen this year?

A meteor shower is named after the constellation where all the meteors seem to start from, in this case the June Bootids are named after the constellation of Bootes the Herdsman

Meteor showers relate to comets which are dirty snowballs travelling around the Sun. They leave a trail of dust behind the, If the Earth passes through such a dust stream we see a meteor shower.

Some people however call them shooting stars, they are nothing to do with stars. They are simply grains of dust burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The comet associated with the June Bootids is comet Pons Winnecke. On a normal year maybe 1 or 2 meteors per hour are seen, but there have been outbursts of meteor activity in 1916, 1921, 1927 and most recently in 1998 when around 100 meteors per hour were seen.

 

What about this year? We don’t know but if it is clear on the night of June 27^th/28^th have a look outside when its dark and if you see any meteors the chances are they are June Bootids,

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