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Cómo ver las dos lluvias de meteoros que habrá en julio de 2026

By CNN

Dos lluvias de meteoros alcanzarán su máximo esta semana, pero las condiciones podrían dificultar su observación.

Las alfa capricórnidas están activas desde principios de julio hasta mediados de agosto, mientras que las delta acuáridas del sur lo están desde mediados de julio hasta mediados de agosto. Se espera que ambas alcancen su máximo entre la noche del jueves 30 y la madrugada del viernes 31 de julio, cuando la Tierra atraviese la parte más densa de las corrientes de partículas, según la American Meteor Society, una organización estadounidense dedicada al estudio de los meteoros.

Una tercera lluvia de meteoros, las perseidas, también estará activa esta semana, aunque no alcanzará su máximo hasta mediados de agosto.

Sin embargo, la luna llena de julio se verá en su mayor plenitud este miércoles 29, y su luz reflejada dificultará la observación de los meteoros más tenues, de acuerdo con Bob Lunsford, coordinador de informes de la American Meteor Society.

Las alfa capricórnidas y las delta acuáridas del sur se producen todos los años, pero aproximadamente cada tres años una luna llena limita la visibilidad durante el máximo de estas lluvias de meteoros, dijo Lunsford.

En otro momento del mes, la lluvia de meteoros sería más visible cuando la luna está por debajo del horizonte o antes de que salga; “pero con la luna llena, permanece en el cielo toda la noche”, dijo Bill Cooke, director de la Oficina de Entorno de Meteoroides de la NASA. Los meteoros “serán muy difíciles de ver”.

Sin embargo, quienes se encuentren en el hemisferio sur podrían tener una ventaja. Desde allí, el radiante —el punto del cielo del que parecen proceder los meteoros— se encuentra más alto que en el hemisferio norte, aseguró Cooke.

Para encontrar el mejor punto de observación, Lunsford aconseja situarse en un lugar elevado, mirar hacia el norte y mantener la Luna a la espalda, de modo que su luz directa no afecte la visión nocturna.

El radiante de las delta acuáridas del sur está en la constelación de Acuario. Esta lluvia se caracteriza por producir meteoros más rápidos: cerca de dos por hora desde el hemisferio norte y tres por hora desde el hemisferio sur.

El radiante de las alfa capricórnidas, por su parte, está en la constelación de Capricornio. Esta lluvia suele producir meteoros más brillantes y fáciles de detectar: alrededor de tres por hora desde ambos hemisferios, según la American Meteor Society.

Las lluvias de meteoros pueden ofrecer imágenes espectaculares, pero esa no es la única razón para observarlas. El estudio de estos fenómenos puede revelar información importante sobre el espacio.

Registrar estos acontecimientos puede ayudar a los expertos a “determinar qué partículas orbitan en el espacio y cuándo las interceptamos cada año”, dijo Lunsford.

Además, el seguimiento de las lluvias de meteoros puede contribuir a mejorar la seguridad de los vuelos espaciales tripulados.

De acuerdo con Cooke, estos fenómenos pueden aportar información sobre las condiciones que podrían enfrentar las naves y sus tripulaciones en el espacio.

El máximo simultáneo de las dos lluvias podría ser difícil de observar, pero las perseidas alcanzarán su mayor actividad en agosto y, si el cielo está despejado, se espera que ofrezcan un despliegue más impresionante, según EarthSky.

Estas son las fechas de máxima actividad de las lluvias de meteoros restantes en 2026, de acuerdo con la American Meteor Society:

  • Perseidas: 12 y 13 de agosto
  • Oriónidas: 21 y 22 de octubre
  • Táuridas del sur: 4 y 5 de noviembre
  • Táuridas del norte: 11 y 12 de noviembre
  • Leónidas: 16 y 17 de noviembre
  • Gemínidas: 13 y 14 de diciembre
  • Úrsidas: 21 y 22 de diciembre

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Sen. Paul: ‘Very real chance’ Fauci could be prosecuted after Senate hearing

▶ Watch Video: Sen. Rand Paul says there's a "very real chance" Fauci could be prosecuted after contentious hearing Hours after Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to all questions during a Senate hearing, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told CBS News he believes the former infectious disease official could be prosecuted for not answering questions.The testimony followed years of fiery disputes between Paul and Fauci — both medical doctors — over the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the origins of the virus that caused it. Fauci has long defended his handling of both issues, and Paul has repeatedly accused him of lying. Last weekend, Paul's office released a trove of journal entries penned by Fauci.In a brief opening statement in Wednesday's hearing, Fauci said he planned to assert the Fifth Amendment, arguing that Paul has an "obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution" and has made "slanderous comments" about him. He then invoked the Fifth Amendment for several hours as Paul and other Republicans criticized him and Democrats defended him.In an interview later Wednesday on CBS News' "The Takeout with Major Garrett," Paul argued Fauci's lack of answers could lead to federal criminal charges for contempt of Congress or obstructing a congressional proceeding."I think there is a very real chance that he could be prosecuted for that," Paul said.The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants people the right not to incriminate themselves, which generally allows them to decline to answer questions. But in this case, Paul argues, a preemptive pardon that former President Joe Biden issued to Fauci just hours before leaving office could prevent Fauci from invoking the Fifth Amendment since he cannot be prosecuted for any of the issues that lawmakers asked about.Fauci's attorney, David Schertler, pushed back in an email to CBS News."We are completely confident that Dr. Fauci has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege here and is on solid legal ground in asserting it," he said. "Rand Paul may be a doctor, but he is not a lawyer."Paul called it an unsettled legal question."I don't think this has ever been truly and fully adjudicated. There aren't that many people with pardons who have come before a congressional committee and refuse to testify," Paul told CBS News. "A court ultimately would have to determine: Does the Fifth Amendment apply to someone who already has a pardon?"A federal law often cited in contempt-of-Congress proceedings makes it a crime for witnesses to "willfully" refuse to answer questions when called to testify before Congress. Another law bars obstructing an investigation by a congressional committee.Paul has said the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which he chairs, will hold a vote next week on whether to recommend holding Fauci in contempt of Congress. If the majority-GOP committee votes in favor, the matter would head to the full Senate for a vote. Final adoption of that measure would require a simple majority, but ending debate might need 60 votes, which would require some Democrats to vote in favor.After that, whether to pursue criminal charges against Fauci would be up to the Justice Department. The department has chosen to charge people referred by Congress for contempt in a handful of cases — most recently, under the Biden administration, Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro — but it has declined to bring charges in other cases.Senators spent Wednesday's hearing raising some of the most controversial elements of the federal government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including recommendations around mask-wearing, social distancing and closures of schools and businesses. But some of the most contentious moments involved the debate over the origins of the coronavirus. Paul backs the theory that the virus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, rather than naturally jumping from animals to humans in a wet market in that city, and he has long accused Fauci and other top health officials of downplaying the possibility of a lab leak. The senator has also focused on whether the virus was manipulated in the lab through "gain-of-function" research, typically defined as modifying or enhancing viruses to study how they evolve. He has accused Fauci of lying to Congress about whether such research took place in Wuhan with U.S. government-funded grants. Paul argued on CBS News that the coronavirus may have been "adapted in the lab to be very transmissible."Fauci has denied that he rejected or downplayed the lab leak theory, insisting that he always kept an open mind about the origins of the coronavirus, though he has asserted at times that the evidence suggests a natural spillover was more likely. He has also denied lying about the research in Wuhan, arguing the studies Paul cited did not constitute gain-of-function research under federal definitions.Fauci has also said it would be "molecularly impossible" for the bat viruses at the center of that research to be linked to the virus that causes COVID-19.Some entries in Fauci's diaries that were released by Paul last weekend reflect scientists' early efforts to understand how the virus emerged. In January 2020, he wrote that "we know the market was not the source, it was the amplifier," though he added that "somewhere the virus jumped from animals to humans." About a week later, he described a conference call with a dozen infectious disease experts, most of whom felt it was "possible" that mutations to the virus were inserted by humans.
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