Earthlings in North America might be able to see a new meteor shower this Memorial Day weekend.
When our planet passes through the pieces of a disintegrating comet, there could be some meteorites. Comet scientists eagerly anticipate the encounter as well as skywatchers. The shower could run into early Tuesday on Memorial Day, according to NASA.
SW3 completes an elliptical path around our star once every five years. It broke apart in 1995 and left behind a cloud of debris that continues to circle the sun.
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We have seen comets split before. William Reach, an astronomer at the SOFIA Science Center at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said that one out of every 100 periodic comets might break apart eventually.
In the 1990s, chunks of the comet fell into Jupiter. Reach told Space.com that the process is almost certainly not the same if SW3 looks similar.
Scientists don't know what causes comets to break up. It could be more than one factor. Jupiter's powerful pull caused the collapse of Shoemaker-Levy 9. Some comets might break apart when volatile compounds such as water heat up and transition from the solid phase to gas.
Dates and viewing advice are included in the guide.
The seesawing of a comet from the inner solar system to the far colder outer reaches puts thermal strain on the body. Something might give given the amount of stress.
SW3 is breaking up. For the last several decades, Earth has been bringing our planet ever closer to crossing the resulting cloud of debris. We seem to be cruising through it this year. If that is the case, the comet debris will fall into Earth's atmosphere and burn up in the sky.
Astronomers certainly hope this happens; they're keen to get a rare up-close look at shards of a celestial object. In fact, one astronomer, Jérémie Vaubaillon, plans to get even closer by flying in a jet over New Mexico and Arizona during the meteor shower.
"By flying through it, even just by knowing that it exists, that shows that the particles survived," Reach told Space.com. "We don't actually know that. Some of them are icy, and they don't survive."
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Scientists can watch how comet shards fragment, which can reveal information about their composition. Astronomers can't just look at an object with a telescope, they have to look deep inside a comet.
Astronomers have a rare chance to get their hands on comet material during the potential meteor shower. In the past, NASA has flown particle-catchers through meteor streams to grab falling dust from the solar system.
Reach said that it was similar to having a space mission, going to the comet and bringing it back.
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