Free Republic

Astronomers expect that this year’s Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower will be an epic outburst with possible rates of up to 400 shooting stars an hour. ================================================================= Sky-watchers may get to see 2019 really go out with a bang, with the expected arrival this week of an explosion of shooting stars. If astronomers’ predictions hold true, the Alpha Monocerotid meteor shower could come to life in dramatic fashion on November 21 and 22, with possible rates of up to 400 shooting stars an hour during its relatively brief peak. Such an outburst would make this shower at least four times more...

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — Thursday night is setting up to be a rare event. There's a chance that the alpha Monocerotid meteor shower could become a meteor storm, according to Eseko Lyytinen and Peter Jenniskens, two meteor scientistss who have been studying this particular meteor shower. If the meteor storm does happen, it will be the first alpha Monocerotids meteor storm since 1995, when it produced rates of around 400 meteors per hour. According to the American Meteor Society, the storm may be here and gone quickly — usually over within an hour. AMS reports that the storm would reach its...