The Lyrids Meteor Shower is one that occurs over a two week period in April
and usually peaks on April 22nd. The records of this meteor shower go back as far as 687 BC,
making it the oldest known record of any meteor shower to date. Welcome to Learn the Sky! My name
is Janine and in this video we will examine the cause of this meteor shower, and get practice with
identifying the constellation of Lyra, since that is the radiant for this meteor shower. So let's get
started. The source of this meteor shower are particles of dust shed by the long period
comet known as C/1861 G1 also called the Thatcher comet, since A. E. Thatcher discovered it in 1861.
It's also worth mentioning that Carl Wilhelm Baker also independently found this comet, and any time
a comet comes around the sun they emit a streak of dust that turns into this dusty trail around their
orbit, and each year the Earth passes through these dusty debris trails. These particles then
enter our atmosphere, they burn up and create beautiful colorful streaks across the sky.
Now I don't have a picture of comet C/1861 G1 and that's because its orbital period is 415 years.
So the last time we saw it was in 1861 and it's expected to make a return to earth around
2283, however I did pull a picture of the comet for you, just so you can see that dusty debris
trail that I was talking about, this comet is called Neowise and did visit us a couple
years back when this video was formed. So let's take a look at a couple of pictures of meteors
and get to know the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite. So this picture was taken
from the international space station, and it's so gorgeous because you can see the atmosphere
of the Earth right here, and here you can see this streak of light, and that's because a particle of
dust is burning up in our atmosphere, and meteors the definition of it, is that they are objects that
glow due to the friction while traveling through Earth's atmosphere, so they appear as a streak of
light in the sky, and they can often vary in color, and the reason for that is because the
difference in composition of the dust particles. Here I've got some action shots of meteors and
when you're observing meteors across the sky. You can't really predict you know when you're going
to see them, you just have to kind of lay back get comfortable, if it's cold outside grab a blanket.
I definitely recommend lying down so you don't exhaust your neck by looking up and it's really
a great thing to see. The challenge I often have with seeing meteor showers is often
light pollution, either from artificial light or even natural light such as the moon
or naturally the weather systems. I, there are, I can count on my hand many many times I've missed
meteor showers because it's simply cloudy out or it's raining ,and I know that's frustrating
but I can also vividly remember some of the meteor showers I've seen that have been incredible.
So you really have to try to seek out dark skies if you are going to watch a meteor shower.
Now here's another picture I've got, we've got the international space station, and here is a meteor
right here, you can see that thin layer of atmosphere on the Earth. So now we'll take
a look at the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite. So a meteoroid is a small
rocky body floating in space, but when it enters our atmosphere and starts to burn up it's a meteor.
When it hits the surface of the earth it becomes a meteorite. Whenever I teach this concept to my
students in the classroom I often make them draw the difference between the three and
every time they're most students what they do is they just draw me a rocky body, but I
say you know that's you're right, but you have to show me the location. Show me how it's different,
so they always end up adding to their drawings, just showing where exactly a meteor meteoroid
or meteorite is, and meteor showers are named after the place they appear to originate from
in the sky. For example the Geminids Meteor Shower originate from the constellation Gemini.
The Lyrids Meteor Shower originate or appear to originate from the constellation of
Lyra, and when we photograph meteor showers it appears that if we trace these streaks of light
back to the origin point we call this a radiant, and this is because meteor showers are traveling,
the particles are traveling in parallel paths at the same velocity, so they appear to the observer
to radiate from a single point, and I've got some pictures to kind of further explain this.
So here we have Lyra, and the bright star in Lyra is Vega, and this is where the radiant
is located, and remember we name meteor showers after where the radiant appears to be, which
constellation is it. So this is, this concept is very similar to train tracks. Like if you take
up this picture of a train track we know that these train tracks are parallel and they appear
to converge at a single point in the horizon, according to the observer, but that's not true.
We just know that these lines are these railroad tracks they're parallel so meteor showers are
almost always named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate from.
This picture that you're seeing here this is the Perseids, which is a really great meteor shower to
observe in like mid august I would say is the best time, but this is where the radiant is for that
particular meteor shower, and I wanted to share one other photo of a radiant with you, I love this,
I love old astronomy drawings from you know way back when before we were taking pictures of stuff,
and this is one that I found that I just thought was really cool to share with you.
So now what I'd like to do is get some practice with you on how to identify the constellation of
Lyra, which is a really easy constellation to point out, mostly because of this bright star
Vega, and also the pattern that it makes in the sky is really easy to point out. So this is what
Lyra looks like, it's represented as a harp but to me it kind of looks like, when I look at this shape
it makes me think of a diamond ring, like here is where the ring is, and this is the diamond
sitting on top of the ring, but um other people may see something different and and that's okay.
Remember constellations are man-made concepts and it appears that these stars are connected even
though they they aren't in reality, so um just notice this parallelogram shape, that's kind of
another shape I try to drill into my students, is look at that parallelogram
shape with the bright star on top. So if you're struggling to find this particular constellation
you can use the Summer Triangle as well. The Summer Triangle is an asterism
in which we can connect the three brightest stars that we see in the summer to make a triangle shape.
Keep in mind I do have a whole video about the Summer Triangle as well as Lyra, so if you want
to see those videos be sure to go check them out, but this is the pattern of the summer triangle
and they connect the three constellations known as Lyra, Cygnus and Aquila. So Lyra is right down here,
notice the parallelogram shape, and the bright star Vega, we have Cygnus right here, it makes this big
cross in the sky, and then Aquila is down here, you're only seeing a portion of Aquila,
but the stars that it connects are Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Vega is the brightest of the three, so
if you can make this pattern in the sky then you know, okay Vega is going to be the brighter one, and
therefore I can find Lyra. So I wish you luck when trying to find the Lyrids Meteor Shower. Now that
you've watched this video you know why we see meteor showers, how they're named, and how
to identify the constellation of Lyra. Remember anytime you go out and view the stars it takes
time, patience, and practice. Especially patience when it comes to the celestial events, because
weather most of the time is the greatest barrier from being able to see these celestial events so
I do hope the weather is on your side and you have cloud free skies, also try to avoid light
pollution when you can, whether it's natural, like the moon, sometimes we can't control that,
we can't control when the moon is going to be out, but we can try to escape the
artificial light from cities. So thank you so much for watching and as always keep looking up.