If we think about meteor showers and the summer of the northern hemisphere, possibly the only one that comes to mind is the perseids. Without a doubt, it is the most famous of all, that is indisputable. But it’s not the only one. Right at the beginning of the summer period we can also enjoy the bootidas, a very special meteor shower for being, possibly, the most unpredictable of all.
Don’t stop looking at the sky this week. The Booties can be seen crossing the sky between June 22 and July 2, although its peak takes place between June 22 and 30, normally the 27th. That is why it is recommended that this week we look at the sky, especially during Saturday night, when the peak is most likely to occur. And hopefully also an explosion.
A variable number of meteors. We usually know how many meteors per hour we will see with a meteor shower. For example, the Perseids usually leave between 50 and 100 meteors per hour. It is quite a spectacle, which still pales in comparison to the December Geminidswhich can reach 120-150 meteors per hour. The bootidae, on the other hand, only give us 1 or 2 meteors every hour.
We should be very focused on the sky to be able to see them. However, from time to time they experience outbursts in which a number of meteors comparable to those of the Perseids can be reached. The last of these outbreaks took place in 2004 and it is not known when the next one will be. That’s why it’s such a special occasion.
The explanation. When comets and asteroids pass near the Sun, they often leave behind a cloud of debris caused by various reasons, but especially by the sublimation of the ice that they usually have on their surface or their core (in the case of comets). That cloud floats in space, usually in a defined place. Therefore, when the Earth revolves around the Sun, it always encounters these clouds at the same time of year. As it crosses our atmosphere, debris burns, giving rise to small fireballs streaking through the sky. Those are meteors or, as we know them colloquially, shooting stars.
If there is a planet near the orbit of a comet or asteroid, can exert a gravitational effect on its debris, preventing it from being distributed homogeneously. That’s what happens with booties. They come from the debris of comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke, strongly influenced by Jupiter. In their case, instead of leaving a homogeneous cloud of debris, these are formed into dense threads, so that the Earth each year encounters a point of different density. Some of those threads are well studied. For example, it is known that the thread that led to outbursts in 1916, 1998 and 2004 could leave another outburst in 2037. However, there may be other unidentified threads that leave outbursts in other years. Maybe this 2026?
Other information that makes it special. Another reason why bootida rain is so special is the meteor speed. While the Perseids fly across the sky at 59 km/s and the Geminids do the same at 35 km/s, the Bootids They move at 18 km/s. They are much slower, so if we manage to see them, we will enjoy them much better. We’ll have more time to make a wish! Yes, scientifically it is useless, but we have all caught ourselves trying to do it at some point.
How to see them. To see the meteor showers, you basically have to follow the same steps as to see any meteor shower. It is best not to use telescopes or binoculars, since we will not know where to point. The ideal option is Find a place well away from light pollution and fix our eyes on a point in the sky until our eyes get used to the darkness. The radiant of the Bootes is, as its name indicates, the constellation of Bootes. That means that this is the place in the sky where shooting stars seem to be born. However, they can come from any point. The important thing is that: fix your eyes and get your eyes used to it.
As for the time, the ideal is to start searching after midnight, at least in latitudes close to the Spanish one, since that will be when they will be seen high enough in the sky. If there is no explosion, there won’t be much to see, but what if there is one and we don’t try to go out and look? Better to be bored than to regret not having tried.
Image | Michal Mancewicz (Unsplash)
In Xataka | Meteor showers, planetary alignments and lunar phases: all the astronomical events that we have in view
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