2019 February Epsilon Virginids Shower Earth’s Skies Jan. 29 to Feb. 9

Summary: The 2019 February epsilon Virginids shower Earth’s skies Jan. 29 to Feb. 9, the shower’s annual activity dates, with midpoint peaking Feb. 3 to 4.

February epsilon Virginid meteor shower appears to radiate from an area to the north of Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis); Virgo the Virgin constellation map credit: IAU and Sky & Telescope (Roger Sinnott and Rick Fienberg; constellation patterns by Alan MacRoberts), CC BY 4.0 International, via IAU (International Astronomical Union)

The 2019 February epsilon Virginid shower Earth’s skies Tuesday, Jan. 29, to Saturday, Feb. 9, the meteor shower’s annual activity dates, with an expected midpoint peak Sunday, Feb. 3, to Monday, Feb. 4.

Robert Lunsford, the American Meteor Society’s Meteor Activity Outlook weekly columnist, recommends pre-dawn hours for best viewing. The February epsilon Virginid shower’s radiant (apparent point of origin) appears well above the horizon before midnight local standard time. Best viewing begins around 4 a.m. local standard time.

The February epsilon Virginids shoot swift-moving meteors. The shower’s discoverers, SETI Institute intern Kathryn Steakley and senior research scientist Peter Jenniskens place entry velocity during the meteors’ encounter with Earth’s atmosphere at 63 kilometers per second (39.1 miles per second).

The February epsilon Virginids are visible in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Lunsford gives a rate of nearly one meteor per hour at all viewing locations in the last dark pre-dawn hour.

The IMO (International Meteor Organization) Video Meteor Network’s report for January 2013 assigned almost 600 meteors to the February epsilon Virginids during the shower’s activity dates from Jan. 29 to Feb. 9. The report noted that “the shower is the second or third strongest source in the sky all time long.” The February epsilon Virginid shower’s meteors were culled from recordings of more than 13,000 meteors by 71 cameras over nearly 5,000 hours of observing time.

A dark moon encourages ideal observations during the 2019 February epsilon Virginid shower’s annual activity dates, including peak. The waning crescent phase progressively darkens the moon, from only about 34 percent visibility at the shower’s onset, Tuesday, Jan. 29, down to only six percent visibility Saturday, Feb. 2. Peak activity coincides with the moon’s invisible new moon phase, which begins Monday, Feb. 4, at 21:04 Universal Time (4:04 p.m. Eastern Standard Time). The waxing crescent phase dims the lunar surface, with visibility only reaching 19 percent at the shower’s end, Saturday, Feb. 9.

The February epsilon Virginid meteor shower’s name reflects an apparent point of origin, known as the shower’s radiant, near Virgo the Virgin constellation’s third brightest star, Epsilon Virginis. February epsilon Virginid meteors appear to radiate from the constellation’s northwestern region, near Virgo’s boundary with the southeastern region of Coma Berenices the Hair of Berenice constellation.

On the February epsilon Virginid shower’s start date, Jan. 29, Lunsford locates the radiant at a point two degrees north of Epsilon Virginis. Peak activity appears to radiate from a point four degrees east of Epsilon Virginis.

Epsilon Virginis (ε Virginis; Epsilon Vir, ε Vir) lies in the second largest constellation in Earth’s sky. Virgo the Virgin also sprawls as the largest of the 12 zodiacal constellations. A third magnitude star with a yellowish hue, Epsilon Virginis represents Virgo the Virgin’s right arm or wing.

Epsilon Virginis is known as traditionally as Vindemiatrix (Latin: feminine grape gatherer) or as Vindemiator (Latin: male grape gatherer). Dr. Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri, astrophysicist at l’Observatoire de Paris, suggests that the traditional name acknowledges the star’s first visibility when grapes are ready for harvesting.

Discovery of the February epsilon Virginids occurred through the NASA-sponsored Cameras for All-sky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) system. Examination of data recorded by the CAMS system’s stations at Fremont Peak Observatory, Lick Observatory and Sunnyvale during the first week of February (Wednesday, Feb. 1, to Saturday, Feb. 4) 2012 revealed an unknown stream. The stream’s cluster of nine meteors February Epsilon Virginids traced to a geocentric (apparent) radiant near Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis, ε Virginis; Epsilon Vir, ε Vir) in Virgo the Virgin constellation.

Steakley and Jenniskens were able to increase their tally of possible associations from nine to a total of 28. Examinations of 2011 CAMS and Japan’s 2007-2009 SonotaCo Meteor Network data yielded 15 additional candidates. Expanding the February 2012 CAMS data by four additional days (Sunday, Feb. 5, through Wednesday, Feb. 8) produced four additional candidates.

D-criterion calculations indicate the degree of closeness between two orbits. A comparison of the median of the 28 orbits with the D-criterion for individual orbits eliminated six outliers. D-criterion values of less than 0.15 applied to 22 of the 28 orbits. Four of the 22 orbits were sourced from SonotaCo and 18 were captured by CAMS.

Steakley and Jenniskens reported their findings to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the international association responsible for assigning designations and names to astronomical bodies and objects. IAU assigned number 506 to the new shower, now known as the February epsilon Virginids (FEV).

The discoverers figure an orbital period of 40.4 years for the February epsilon Virginid meteor shower’s unknown parent body. The orbital period qualifies the parent body as a Halley-type comet. Halley-type comets exhibit orbital periods of 20 to 200 years.

In the presentation of their discovery at the American Astronomical Society’s 221st meeting Jan. 9, 2013, in Long Beach, California, Steakley and Jenniskens identified three parent body candidates: comets C/1978 T3 (Bradfield), C/1808 F1 (Pons) and C/1939 H1 (Jurlof-Achmarof-Hassel). Discovered on Oct. 10, 1978, Comet C/1978 T3 numbered as the eighth of 18 comets credited to New Zealand-born Australian amateur astronomer William A. Bradfield (June 20, 1927-June 9, 2014). French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons (Dec. 24, 1761-Oct. 14, 1831) discovered Comet C/1808 F1 on March 25, 1808. The IAU credits Russian amateur astronomers Semyon Nikolaevich Jurlof (Yurlov) (?-1962) and Ibrahim Valiullovich Achmarof (Akhmarov) (April 18, 1912-1987?) and Norwegian amateur astronomer Olaf Hassel (May 12, 1898-Aug. 22, 1972) with the April 15, 1939, discovery of Comet C/1939 H1.

The takeaways for the 2019 February epsilon Virginids, which shower Earth’s skies annually from Jan. 29 to Feb. 9, are that peak activity by the shower’s swiftly moving meteors happens Feb. 3 to Feb. 4 and that the shower’s parent body is unknown.

SETI Institute's principal investigator, Dutch and American meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens, co-discovered the February epsilon Virginids with SETI intern Kathryn Steakley via 2012 CAMS data: SETI Institute @SETIInstitute, via Facebook March 29, 2014

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

February epsilon Virginid meteor shower appears to radiate from an area to the north of Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis); Virgo the Virgin constellation map credit: IAU and Sky & Telescope (Roger Sinnott and Rick Fienberg; constellation patterns by Alan MacRoberts), CC BY 4.0 International, via IAU (International Astronomical Union) @ https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/#com

SETI Institute's principal investigator, Dutch and American meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens, co-discovered the February epsilon Virginids with SETI intern Kathryn Steakley via 2012 CAMS data: SETI Institute @SETIInstitute, via Facebook March 29, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/SETIInstitute/photos/a.123276420534/10152310512255535/

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