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POPS2009 Leonid Meteor Shower More from the article below: ""We're predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Our forecast is in good accord with independent theoretical work by other astronomers." "A remarkable feature of this year's shower is that Leonids will appear to be shooting almost directly out of the planet Mars," notes Cooke. It's just a coincidence. This year, Mars happens to be passing by the Leonid radiant at the time of the shower. The Red Planet is almost twice as bright as a first magnitude star, so it makes an eye-catching companion for the Leonids"
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POPSSet Your Alarm For The Orionids!
"Last but not least, the display will be framed by some of the prettiest stars and planets in the night sky. In addition to Orionids, you'll see brilliant Venus, red Mars, the dog star Sirius, and bright winter constellations such as Orion, Gemini and Taurus. Even if the shower is a dud, the rest of the sky is dynamite." "According to Japanese meteor scientists Mikiya Sato and Jun-ichi Watanabe, 2006 marked Earth's first encounter with some very old debris. "We have found that the was caused by dust trails ejected from 1P/Halley in 1266 BC, 1198 BC, and 911 BC," they wrote in the August 2007 edition of Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. In their paper "Origin of the 2006 Orionid Outburst," Sato and Watanabe used a computer to model the structure and evolution of Halley's many debris streams stretching back in time as far as 3400 years. The debris that hit Earth in 2006 was among the oldest they studied and was rich in large fireball-producin
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POPSMore Meteors I wish I could include the captions for all of these, but we still have that 1,000 chars. to deal with. Besides, you can get 'em if you want 'em.
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POPSNew Google Doodle to Mark Perseid Meteor Shower The image shows houses silhouetted against the night sky, with meteors streaking through the air, leaving a trail of bright light. Clicking on the link takes web surfers through to a Google results page for searches about the Perseid meteor shower, which will still be visible across the United Kingdom this evening.
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POPSTweeteor Shower Just use the hashtag #Meteorwatch when tweeting. If you’re interested in observing the shower, I urge you to find groups going out; it’s more fun with lots of people, and it’s easier to stay awake. Sky and Telescope’s website has a searchable list of clubs and organizations so you can find out who’s near you. Added bonus: Jupiter is up all night, so if you’re with a group of folks with telescopes you’ll get to see one of the best sights in the sky. Bring binoculars if you have them too; they’re easy to share. The Perseids are a great way to get kids into astronomy, and a wonderful way to spend an evening. Have fun!
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POPSMeteor Shower Tonight The Perseids are bits of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which has laid down several streams of debris, each in a slightly different location, over the centuries as it orbits the sun. Every August, Earth passes through these debris streams, which spread out over time. "They are typically fast, bright and occasionally leave persistent trains," says Joe Rao, SPACE.com's Skywatching Columnist. "And every once in a while, a Perseid fireball will blaze forth, bright enough to be quite spectacular and more than capable to attract attention even in bright moonlight." Low numbers of Perseids, including some bright fireballs, have already been reported as Earth began entering the stream in late July. Seasoned observers have counted up to 25 per hour already, or nearly one every two minutes. Most meteors are no bigger than a pea. They vaporize as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating bright streaks across the sky. The Perseids appear to emanate from the constellation Pers
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POPSCosmic Fireworks! If we're all very lucky, we'll have clear night time skies with a good view. Happy Perseids Viewing!
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POPSAliens Save the Planet From Meteor "We don't have any technologies that can print such kind of drawings on crystals... We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space."
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POPSForty Thousand Meteor Origins Across the Sky "Besides known meteor showers, eleven new showers were identified by new radiants on the sky from which meteors appear to flow. The meteor sky is ever changing, and it may be possible that new shower radiants will appear in the future. Research like this could also potentially identify previously unknown comets or asteroids that might one day pass close to the Earth. "
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POPSUFOs or High Altitude Lightning? Over 90% of UFO sightings can be easily explained, and are usually visual misinterpretations of meteors, weather balloons, a flock of birds, blimps, or even the Moon.
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POPS Fireball Over Texas A fireball that bright would be from a big chunk, and they’d have tracked it. However, I really don’t think this was from the satellites; it was moving rapidly (deorbiting space junk tends to move far slower than incoming meteors) and in the wrong direction.]
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POPScarolina bays lakes carefully analyzed the possibility of meteors, astroids or comets forming the Carolina Bays and concluded that it was most likely due to a comet
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