Meteors To Paint Sky With Shooting Stars

The night skies of this cold, short winter month can captivate sky-gazers with a myriad of mysteries connected to conjuring constellations, sparkling stars, and peculiar planets that gleam gloriously all over the heavens. Marveling at the elusive minute planet Mercury, along with the ruddy planet Mars, would be difficult this month. It would be marching merrily through comely constellations, Libra (scales) and Scorpius (scorpion), during daytime. Bewitching stars Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali would be coruscating charmingly in Libra. Alluring Antares (Jestha) glitters gorgeously in Scorpius. 

The red supergiant Antares has evolved into a massive star. If it is ensconced at the centre of our Solar System, it would extend out to the asteroid belt. This baffling binary star derives its traditional tag from Ancient Greek as a rival to Aries (ram) and its similarity to the reddish hue of Mars. It is referred to romantically as the heart of a scorpion. It is circa 550 light-years away. Zubenelgenubi (Vishika) is divisible into two stars. The primary one is a blue-white star. The secondary is spellbindingly white. It is seemingly simply 75 light-years away. Its classical sobriquet means the southern claw. 

Zubeneschamali

The green-tinged star Zubeneschamali is measured to be 185 light-years away. It is the corresponding northern claw to Zubenelgenubi. Planet Venus can be visualised in the eastern sky during dawn before sunrise succinctly. It is venturing to pass through the constellations Scorpion and Libra. 

Scintillating star Spica beautifies Virgo. Spica, roughly translated from Latin, refers to a virgin's ear of wheat grain. It is a strange spectroscopic binary star and rotating ellipsoidal variable configuration with two stars that are egg-shaped rather than spherical. Spica is basically 250 light-years away.

Planet Jupiter can be astounded jovially in the eastern sky from late hours after sundown. It will be climbing in southern sky during wee hours of the night. It will be dipping down towards the western horizon by daybreak. Jupiter, with its numerous moons, is jolting through the cute constellation Gemini (twins). Bizarre stars Castor (Kasturi) are Pollux (Punarbasu) are glistening in the neighbourhood of Jupiter. They are intriguingly 49 and 34 light-years away. The sight of the ringed planet Saturn can be savoured in the southeastern sky after dusk would fade to murkiness. It would be aloft in southern sky late in the night. 

After midnight, it would slowly sink towards the western horizon and be evanescent. Saturn is sliding through the confounding constellation Aquarius (the water bearer). Planet Uranus can be admired in the eastern sky after the vanishing twilight. It would ascend the southern sky till late after midnight. It could be glimpsed low in the western sky by sun-up. Uranus can be observed in the constellation Taurus (bull).  Red super giant star Aldebaran (Rohini), which is appallingly 67 light-years away, is shining superbly near Uranus. On 21 November, the blue-green enigmatic planet Uranus will be at opposition and come closest to Earth. It will be intensively illuminated by the Sun and be brighter than at any other time of the year. It will be visible all night. It is the most desirable time to delve into Uranus. However, due to its distance (astonishingly 20 AU) from us, it will appear as a diminutive dot even through powerful telescopes. 

The far-flung planet Neptune can be perceived in the eastern sky after descending darkness. It would hover high in the southern sky late in the night. By midnight, spotting it in the western sky would not be easy. It is standing in a sprawling constellation, Pisces (fishes), below the famed circlet asterism. 

To its west, Saturn could be cherished in its vicinity. The full moon on 05 November is popularly recognised as the beaver full moon, because during this time of year beaver-traps are set before the swamps and rivers freeze. It is the second of three super-moons for 2025. The moon would apparently sail towards Earth and suggest being slightly bigger and more luminous than usual. The new moon will be on 20 November.

On 12 November, amazing asteroid 471 Papagena can be observed in the commanding constellation Cetus (sea monster) stretching below Pisces. It will arrive at its highest point in the sky around midnight. We can apprehend it from evening in the eastern sky till it becomes inaccessible in the western sky late after midnight. On this day, it strolls to the nearest location lying directly opposite to Sun. 

This eerie event is termed opposition. At around the same time it creeps closest to earth at the so-called perigee and would putatively become very fulgent. Papagena would be opposite to the Sun and lie in a straight line with Earth residing in the middle. 

Papagena will scoot within 1.262 AU of us. Papagena was ferreted out by German astronomer Max Wolf in June 1901. Papagena is a dim object beyond the reach of the naked eye. Binoculars of moderate aperture are needed to discern it deeply. One Astronomical Unit (AU) is the mean Sun-earth span, amounting to approximately 150 million kilometres. Every five years, Papagena hurtles to that favourable opposition-position from where it becomes extraordinarily effulgent until December 2035. Its moniker embodies one congenial character in the renowned Mozart’s opera. Its orbital period is barely 4.91 years.

The Leonid meteor shower would be displaying up to 15 meteors per hour at its peak which would transpire this year from the night of 17 November till the morning of 18 November. This unique shower that exhibits cyclic maximum runs annually from 06 to 30 November. The last one of these occurred in 2001. This time, the excellent show of Leonids can be expected, because the slender crescent moon would not hamper the performance of the shooting stars. The skies would be relatively tenebrous. Best viewing could be undertaken from dark venues after midnight. 

Leonids exude from the radiant dwelling adjacent to the star Algieba in the constellation Leo. The binary orange and greenish yellow star Algieba is nestled in the blade of the sickle-asterism drawn by incandescent stars in the western part of the constellation Leo. They resemble a reversed or backward question mark representing the lion’s mystique, lion’s mane and head with star Regulus manifesting the full-stop. Regulus (dubbed the little king in Latin) emerges as a single star. It is actually a quirky quadruple star system composed conspicuously of four striking stars that are organised oddly into two pairs. It is practically 79 light-years from us. The orbital period of Algieba is uncertainly eccentric. It is thought to be queerly between 400 and 700 years old. 

The periodic comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle is officially responsible for the Leonid meteor shower. William Tempel of Marseille Observatory in France had ascertained this comet on the evening of 19 December 1865. Horace Tuttle of Harvard College Observatory in the USA picked up the comet 17 days later, on the evening of 05 January in 1866 independently. Based upon the measurements, experts calculated its age to be fairly 33.17 years. Historically Leonids' first meteor storm of modern times took place in November 1833, with the rate of meteors reaching to whopping 100 thousand per hour. 

Meteor storms 

The Leonid meteor shower contributed to one of the greatest meteor storms that fell like rain in living memory, with thousands of meteors per minute during 15 minutes on the morning of 17 November 1966. In early 1998, the comet could be seen. Impressive meteor showers in 1999-2001 were acknowledged. 55P/Temple-Tuttle is due back in early 2031.  The Leonids are produced when Earth passes through the debris left behind by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle during its elliptical trajectory around the Sun every 33 years. 

Leonids are considered some of the fastest meteors, zipping through the sky at a splendid 71 kilometers per second. They can result in fascinating fireballs that generate long and colorful meteor streaks. Meteor showers arise when Earth rushes through streams of particles left behind in the wake of comets and asteroids. 

Over time, the grits dismayingly distribute themselves along the length of the parent entity's path around the Solar System. Shooting stars are witnessed whenever one of 

these tiny pieces collides with the earth's atmosphere, typically burning up at an altitude of scantly 70 to 100 kilometers. Furthermore, the Leonid meteor shower has triggered and rigorously revolutionised the study and research in meteor science.

(The author is an academician at NAST and patron of Nepal Astronomical Society or NASO)