The tau Herculid shower, if it happens, will be caused by debris from the comet SW3, which shattered into pieces years ago.
are generally the result of Earth passing through the"tail" of a comet—a vast cloud of gas and dust released from the comet as it passes near to the sun.
Debris inside this cloud can streak through the Earth's atmosphere at enormous speeds—dozens of miles per second. The intense heat generated by the debris slamming into our atmosphere makes the debris glow intensely, which is what causes them to streak brightly across the sky. Some meteor showers are regular, occurring at more or less the same time every year due to the comet's and Earth's orbits around the sun. The Perseid meteor shower, for instance, is visible from mid-July each year, before peaking in August.The tau Herculids are slightly different. This meteor shower, if it happens, will be caused by the comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann or SW3.
Discovered by German astronomers Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann in 1930, the comet was faint and disappeared from sight until the late 1970s, according to NASA. Then, in 1995, astronomers realized it had suddenly become about 600 times brighter and that it was visible with the naked eye.
What had happened was that the comet had broken up into pieces, and since then it has continued to shatter. When it passes us again this year, astronomers think some of this debris will come into contact with Earth, producing a meteor shower.
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