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Why are the Eta Aquarid and Orionid meteor showers both associated with Halley’s Comet?
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Meteor and meteoroid
The Cabin Creek meteorite, an iron (nickel-iron alloy) meteorite that was observed to fall in northwestern Arkansas on March 27, 1886. Its characteristic pattern of “thumbprint” dimples, or regmaglypts, is the result of melting and consequent ablation of its surface as it traveled through the atmosphere. The meteorite is likely a fragment of one of the M class asteroids, which show significant nickel-iron in their surface material.
The Eta Aquarid and Orionid meteor showers are both associated with Halley’s Comet because they are produced by the same stream of debris shed by the comet over millennia.1
As a comet travels near the Sun, it is heated, causing its volatile ices to vaporize and release dust and larger grains into space. This material becomes distributed along the comet’s orbit, forming a meteor stream. Because Earth’s orbit intersects the orbit of Halley’s Comet at two different points during its annual journey around the Sun, our planet passes through this debris stream twice each year.21
When Earth encounters this material, the particles enter the atmosphere and create the meteor showers we observe as the Eta Aquarids in May and the Orionids in October.231