The June Boötids are a
meteor shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extre ...
occurring roughly between 22 June and 2 July each year. In most years their activity is weak, with a
zenith hourly rate (ZHR) of only 1 or 2. However, occasional outbursts have been seen, with the outburst of 1916 drawing attention to the previously unrecorded meteor shower. The most recent outburst occurred in 1998, when the ZHR reached up to 100. The meteor shower occurs when the
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
crosses the orbit of
Comet Pons-Winnecke, a short-period
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
which orbits the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
once every 6.37 years.
They can be very unpredictable. They are also considered very slow meteors, as there are much faster ones. They peak on June 27.
External links
* http://meteorshowersonline.com/showers/june_bootids.html
* http://spaceweather.com/meteors/junebootids.html
Meteor showers
June events
July events
{{Meteor showers