The Egyptian sky is awaiting the Ursids meteor shower on Saturday evening, coinciding with the winter solstice within the northern hemisphere.
An Astronomy professor at the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) Ashraf Tadros said that Ursids will adorn the sky starting from Saturday evening until Sunday dawn in a “beautiful astronomical scene” that can be seen with the naked eye in the event of clear skies and the absence of clouds, dust and water vapor.
Tadros explained on Friday that this event is a light meteor shower with an average of 10 meteors per hour, noting that these meteors are produced by dust debris scattered along the orbit of Comet Tuttle, which was discovered in 1790.
“The Ursids meteors fall as if they were coming from the Ursa Minor constellation (near the North Star), which is why they are named.”
Tadros added that the annual timing of this shower is from December 17-25 of each year, reaching its peak on the night of December 21 and dawn of December 22.
He explained that this annual meteor showers occur when the Earth, during its orbit around the sun, passes through dense clusters of dust and pebbles scattered along the orbits of comets and asteroids, which collide with the upper atmosphere of the Earth and burn up at an altitude of between 70 and 100 kilometers and appearing on Earth as a strip of light, which leads to meteor showers that recur on an annual basis.
He assured that the appearance of these meteors is not harmful, as they enter the atmosphere and burn up in it at an altitude of more than 70 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
This event is much beloved by astronomy enthusiasts, Tadros noted.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
