Key facts
- Parent body
- Halley's Comet
- Constellation
- Aquarius , (near Eta Aquarii )
- Right ascension
- 22 20
- Declination
- −01 °
- Occurs during
- April 19 – May 28
- Date of peak
- May 6
- Velocity
- 66 km/s
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- meteor shower
- Constellation
- Aquarius
- Parent body
- Halley's Comet
- Image
- Eta Aquariids mosaic.png
- Speed
- 66
- Has parts of class
- zenithal hourly rate
Show 5 more facts
- day in year for periodic occurrence
- May 6
- right ascension
- 22.3333
- declination
- -1
- time of discovery or invention
- 1870-00-00
- Commons category
- Eta Aquariids
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Animation of 1P/Halley orbit - 1986 apparition 1P/Halley Earth Sun
The Eta Aquariids are a meteor shower associated with Halley's Comet. The shower is visible from about April 19 to about May 28 each year with peak activity on or around May 5. Unlike most major annual meteor showers, there is no sharp peak for this shower, but rather a broad maximum with good rates that last approximately one week centered on May 5. The meteors we currently see as members of the Eta Aquariid shower separated from Halley's Comet hundreds of years ago. The current orbit of Halley's Comet does not pass close enough to the Earth to be a source of meteoric activity.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Eta Aquariids” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.