New Meteor Shower May Spark Meteor Storm
A new meteor shower from the Comet 209P/LINEAR could spark a potential meteor storm overnight tonight and Saturday (May 23 and 24), but scientists can only wait to see if it sizzles or fizzles.
The meteors are predicted to stream from the direction of the dim and almost formless constellation of Camelopardalis, the Giraffe for about three hours tonight around 3:10 a.m. Eastern Time (12:10 a.m. Pacific Time). That means that the United States and southern Canada will be in the best position to see whatever activity occurs, since it will be taking place in a dark sky between midnight and dawn.
Camelopardalis will be situated low in the north-northwest sky below and slightly to the left of Polaris (the North Star). So the meteors will appear to be streaming up from out of the northern part of the sky.
There will be no mistaking the meteors from this new shower if they show up. The meteors are likely to be bright and unusually slow-moving. They'll be bright because the simulations suggest that the debris should be skewed strongly toward relatively large particles, larger than 1 millimetre.
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