Quadrantid meteor shower tonight: the top nine meteor showers of 2011

4. Delta Aquarid

Newscom/file
One of the comets responsible for the Delta Aquarids is named after the late Brian Marsden of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.

July 28-29

The material comes from the two groups of sungrazing comets: one named for Brian Marsden, the late director of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the other for German astronomer Rainer Kracht. The Delta Aquarids peak at roughly 15 to 20 meteors an hour.

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