August 9, 2013

#1249: Meteor Showers explain

[A list of 16 meteor showers, with a caption above, labels on the three columns and then every other row in gray, beginning with a gray row beneath the line below the column labels.]

{| border=“1” cellpadding=“1” cellspacing=“1” class=“wikitable” style=“width: 60%; text-align: left;”

!colspan=“3”|The xkcd guide to meteor showers

|-

|Name

|Peak

|Notes

|-

|Quadrantids

|January 4th

|Bring pets inside during peak activity

|-

|Tricuspids

|January 21st

|Not viewable in region 2 countries

|-

|Centaurids

|February 6th

|Too faint to see without going outside

|-

|Beta Aquariids

|February 10th

|Inverted shower converges toward Aquarius instead of radiating away

|-

|Chelyabids

|February 15th

|Only one meteor per shower, but it’s big.

|-

|Lyrids

|April 22nd

|Meteors sometimes scream

|-

|Daytime Zeta Perseids

|June 9th

|Likely a NASA hoax

|-

|June Boötids

|June 27th

|50/50 mix of meteors and shooting stars

|-

|Southern Delta Aquariids

|July 19th

|Meteors very bright, but stationary

|-

|Dromaeosaurids

|July 22nd

|Fast, highly intelligent, can open doors

|-

|Perseids

|August 12th

|Instead of falling from sky, meteors erupt from ground

|-

|Tau Pyramids

|August 15th

|Visible even when eyes are closed

|-

|Draconids

|October 8th

|Very slow, but follow you if you run

|-

|Orionids

|October 21st

|Entire shower happens at once

|-

|Leonids

|November 17th

|In 1966, unusually active Leonid shower killed God

|-

|Geminids

|December 13th

|Can be deflected with tennis rackets

|}