Halley's Comet and its remains.

The night of May 5 to 6 will be the night of maximum activity for the Eta Aquarid meteor shower and this year will also be a fairly good year since the moon will not bother you much with its brightness. will be in decline- If you miss it on those nights, remember that meteors will also fall on the previous and following nights. The Eta Aquarids are visible every year between April 19 and May 28, from the 5th to the 7th is only when it is estimated that it will have its maximum activity. This is because the Earth passes through on those days the river of debris left in its wake by Halley's Comet, which has a diameter of about 11 km, it has an orbital period of 76 years on average, it is more or less, not exactly 76. years always, but it is the average. Its observation is more favorable this year from places located in the tropics, such as the Canary Islands and in the southern hemisphere, although it can also be observed in the northern hemisphere; The meteors of the Eta Aquarids have an activity rate of between 40 and 85 meteors per hour and a fairly high speed of about 66 km per second. For observers in medium latitudes, the hours after midnight are advisable. Until dawn it will be those of maximum activity.

The next appearance of Halley's Comet, since the Eta Aquarids are the remains that this Comet leaves behind, will be on July 29, 2061, it will pass 71 and a half million kilometers from the Earth, although the closest approach planned will be on the 7th. May 2134 passing just 13,800 km from us and that is much closer than the famous passage of May 20, 1910, a historic date for astronomy and journalism. That day, May 20, 1910, Halley's Comet passed 22,600 km from the Earth, a more than safe distance, but that passage caused a collective hysteria worldwide, since the Earth passed through the tail of the Comet and it turns out that a little Before, it was discovered that one of the gases frozen in the Comet was present in the tail, which you already know is formed by the gas molecules and particles that the Comet releases when the ice thaws, due to the action of the heat of the Comet. sun.

One of those gases was cyanogen, which is poisonous, the scientists warned that it did not pose any danger, but despite that, a global collective hysteria occurred. People bought masks, it was something incredible, the healers sold anti-comet pills and they also sold anti kite umbrella, I didn't find any photo of an anti kite umbrella, but I'm still looking for it. The gases from the tail of a comet are not a danger to the Earth, they are widely dispersed in the form of molecules and to make matters worse, if one collides with the Earth's atmosphere it is altered by the heat of re-entry, it is more toxic to release a "gas ” in an elevator that gases from the tail of Halley's Comet, so there is no need to worry about it.

The photo I show is real, the spectacle he was showing to the world was impressive, unfortunately some took this spectacle the wrong way and and there were also people who committed suicide due to this collective fear that was created, in fact, in China this occurred on the eve of the Xinhai Revolution, the revolution that put an end to the last dynasty of Chinese emperors in 1911 and that collective fear of the Comet also contributed to the fact that people in China were more afraid and to all the conflict that that Revolution entailed.