In scientific circles, there was news about the discovery of cometary activity in the near-Earth asteroid 2016 BA14 - as a result, this will be the third closest flight of a comet from Earth in the entire history of astronomy!
It turned out that there is also a Russian trace! Astronomer Denis Denisenko drew attention to this near-Earth asteroid on January 29 and noticed in the planetarium program that the asteroid was passing 1 degree from the comet 252P / LINEAR. Then he looked at what distance the comet would be from the Earth and it turned out that it was at the same as the asteroid: 13 times farther from the Moon, and the asteroid 10 times farther from the Moon and practically on the same day: March 22, 2016!
After that Denis checked the orbital elements of the two bodies and they turned out to be the same. After that, it became clear that these were fragments of one body! Further, having driven the objects along their orbits, it became clear that in 1987 they flew near Jupiter (0.25 AU). They fell apart then or earlier - it is not yet clear.
The message about Denis's guess was seen by the American astronomer Mike Kelly and on February 13 made observations of the asteroid "2016 BA14" using the 4-meter telescope "Discovery". In the pictures, he immediately discovered the tail of a near-earth asteroid - which confirmed the accuracy of Denisenko's guess that it was a comet. The object has received a new cometary designation "P / 2016 BA14". But the story did not end there.
If astronomers see a close flyby of a comet past the Earth, then a meteor shower should also be expected - this is the result of the Earth's flight through the comet's "tail", where there is a high density of particles ejected from the comet's nucleus.
The meteor shower from P / 2016 BA14 should be expected on the night of March 20/21, 2016, the speed of the meteors is low: 14 km / s, the radiant will be in the southern constellation Dove, so the meteors will be available for observations only south of 30 N.
Promotional video:
But, if we see the appearance of already separate large fragments of a comet, then it is possible that there are still large unopened fragments that will enter the Earth's atmosphere on the evening of March 20, and this will lead to the appearance of fireballs - bright meteors.
This animation shows 252P / LINEAR (white ball) and P / 2016 BA14 (green ball) flying near the Earth. The earth (dark blue ball) moves in a circular orbit. The animation spans six months before and after perihelion.