The October Draconids, in the past also unofficially known as the Giacobinids, are a Northern Hemisphere meteor shower whose parent body is the periodic comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. They are named after the constellation Draco, where they seemingly come from. Almost all meteors which fall towards Earth ablate long before reaching its surface. The Draconids are best viewed after sunset in an area with a clear dark sky.
The 1933"The meteors from Giacobini's comet", Wylie, C. C., Popular Astronomy, Vol. 42, p. 44, and 1946 Draconids had zenithal hourly rates of thousands of meteors visible per hour, among the most impressive meteor storms of the 20th century. Rare outbursts in activity can occur when the Earth travels through a denser part of the cometary debris stream; for example, in 1998, rates suddenly spikedArlt, R. "Summary of 1998 Draconid Outburst Observations", WGN, Journal of the International Meteor Organization, Vol. 26, p. 256-259, 1998. but only increased modestly in 2005.Campbell-Brown, M.; Vaubaillon, J.; Brown, P.; Weryk, R. J.; Arlt, R. "The 2005 Draconid outburst", Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 451, pp. 339–344, 2006. A Draconid meteor outburst occurred as expected on October 8, 2011, though a waxing gibbous Moon reduced the number of meteors observed visually. During the 2012 shower, radar observations (which detect smaller and fainter meteors) detected up to 1,000 meteors per hour. The 2012 outburst may have been caused by the narrow trail of dust and debris left behind by the parent comet in 1959. A brief Draconids outburst was expected on October 8, 2025, which was projected to last for a few hours, with a ZHR up to approximately 400. A Draconids meteor storm is possible in October 2098, with hourly rates potentially reaching 20,000 meteors per hour.
+Draconid Outbursts Date Stream ZHR 1933-Oct-09 1900 6000 1946-Oct-09 1900 3000 1952-Oct-09 174 (radar) 1985-Oct-08 250Draconids in 1985 1998-Oct-08 720 2005-Oct-08 1946 150 (radar) / 40 (visual) 2011-Oct-08 1900 300 2012-Oct-08 1959 1000 (radar) 2018-Oct-08 1952 150
References
Michael D. Reynolds. Falling Stars. Stackpole Books, 2001. p. 42. Jun-Ichi Watanabe and Mikiya Sato. "Activities of Parent Comets and Related Meteor Showers". Earth, Moon, and Planets, Vol 102, No 1-4 (June 2008). p111-116.
External links Draconid Meteors Over Spain (Astronomy Picture of the Day 2011 October 19) Draconids in 1985, 1998, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2018
The 2012 Draconid Storm Potentially Sampled By NASA ER-2 Aircraft (item 12)