Watch the Geminid Meteor Shower in December!
To learn more about meteor showers, visit http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/meteor-shower/
For more information regarding how to view this year’s Geminid shower, visit http://earthsky.org/tonight/radiant-point-for-geminid-meteor-shower
10 Tips for viewing the shower: http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/ten-tips-for-watching-the-geminid-meteor-shower
(from our friends at OMSI)
Busy weekend ahead up in the sky with the peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower tonight and the ROSAT re–entry sometime on October 23.
Another Falling Satellite
The massive ROSAT X-ray space telescope is making its final spiralling orbits around Earth. Most experts agree that re-entry will occur during the early hours of Oct. 23rd over a still-unknown region of our planet. Meanwhile, the satellite can still be seen slicing brightly through the night sky
According to the DLR (the German space agency), which operated the observatory while it was active in the 1990s, as many as 30 pieces of debris could reach Earth’s surface. Of particular concern is the telescope’s heat-resistant mirror assembly — 1.6 metric tons in all — which could hit the ground intact at hundreds of miles per hour. Odds favor an ocean splashdown or a land impact in sparsely inhabited wilderness. Check Space Weather for viewing times in your area. http://spaceweather.com/
Orionid Meteor Shower
Today Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley’s comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Saturday morning, Oct. 22nd, with more than 15 meteors per hour. Check SpaceWeather for links to a live meteor radar, sky maps and observing tips. http://spaceweather.com
What promises to be the year’s most spectacular metero shower, the Geminids, will occur the night of December 13th-14th!
“It’s the Geminid meteor shower,” says NASA astronomer Bill Cooke of the Marshall Space Flight Center. “Start watching on Thursday evening, Dec. 13th, around 10 pm local time,” he advises. “At first you might not see very many meteors—but be patient. The show really heats up after midnight and by dawn on Friday, Dec. 14th, there could be dozens of bright meteors per hour streaking across the sky.”
Look west late night on Thursday, December 13th and bfefore dawn during the early hours of Friday, December 14th. For more information, please visit the NASA website. Included at this link is a diagram for locating the meteor shower.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03dec_asteroidshower.htm
From our friends at the OMSI Planetarium:
The peak of the Aurigid Meteor Shower is forecast for Saturday, September 1 around 4:30 am PDT. The calculations indicate Earth is about to cross the dust trail of comet Kiess, a comet that takes some 2000 years to complete one orbit around the Sun. The trail is very narrow, so Earth will be sprayed by meteoroids for only about an hour and a half. The meteoroids will approach from the direction of the constellation Auriga, the charioteer, in the north-eastern part of the sky, causing a meteor shower called the “Aurigids.”
The shower is visible from only part of the world and the Pacific NW has the best viewing opportunity. Plan to step out around 4 A.M. PDT in the early Saturday morning of September 1, with the waning gibbous Moon behind an obstruction, and with a wide view on the sky. Gaze up at the sky and spot one of these elusive bits of matter that Comet Kiess lost 2000 years ago. Astronomers are predicting anywhere from 100 to 1,000 meteors an hour during the peak on Saturday morning. The weather forecast has mostly cloudy for Portland area, while mostly clear for eastern Oregon.
This is our only chance to see this shower; the dust trail is not going to hit again in our lifetime. No one can say for sure but it’s worth losing a little sleep to find out.
FULL STORY at:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/08aug_aurigids.htm?list12656
(Brought to you by our friends at the OMSI Planetarium)
NASA Science News for August 8, 2007
On Sept. 1st, a flurry of bright and oddly-colored meteors could spill across the skies of western North America–or not. Forecasters are divided about what will happen next month when Earth runs into an ancient stream of debris from mysterious Comet Kiess.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/08aug_aurigids.htm?list12656
From Space.com
A spectacular meteor shower might be in the offing late next summer, SPACE.com has learned. It may not last very long, but could produce a bevy of bright, swift shooting stars for favorably positioned skywatchers. The prediction is found in a technical report, co-authored by two astronomers who are targeting Sept. 1, 2007 as the date for the potential display.The meteors are called “Aurigids” because they appear to fan-out from the constellation of Auriga, the Charioteer. At least a strong shower
Meteor showers occur whenever we ride into the dusty debris left behind in a comet’s orbit. The debris left behind by Kiess, a comet last seen in 1911, is what produces the Aurigids. The comet takes approximately 2,500 years to orbit the Sun, but there are also dense trails of dust traveling along its orbit. Earth has had glancing blows in the past with a few of these dust trails in 1935, 1986 and 1994.
In 2007, however, the Earth is expected to pass very close to the center of a dust trail, which astronomers Esko Lyytinen of Finland and Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute in California said, should result in “a spectacularly rich shower of bright meteors.”
The researchers in the past used computer models to predict outbursts of the Leonid meteor shower, which wowed skywatchers in 2001 and 2002.
Shooting stars, or meteors, are common any night of the year; five or six per hour are normal. During a respectable meteor shower, they can be seen streaking across the sky every few minutes. But occasionally the sky explodes in a shower of sparks, a rare meteor “storm” that is something to get excited about.
Meteor storm possible? No one is certain how strong next year’s Aurigids may be, but tomorrow, Jenniskens will make an announcement at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Prague concerning an “Aurigid Meteor Storm” of Sept. 1, 2007.
Meteor storms are typically said to involve at least 1,000 meteors per hour, a rate sometimes achieved only in 15-minute bursts. It is not clear what sort of hourly rate Jenniskens will announce as his prediction, however.
“I do not know why Peter Jenniskens will announce this as a storm,” Lyytinen told SPACE.com. “I have not especially tried to predict the strength but I would guess only a good or moderate shower, a storm not impossible.”
The peak of the shower is predicted to occur at 11:37 GMT. Unfortunately this comes during daylight for Europe and much of North America. But the western United States and Canada, as well as much of Alaska and Hawaii will still be in pre-dawn darkness and would be in an excellent position to view it.
Another drawback will be a gibbous Moon, four days past full, whose light could interfere with observing. But, Lytinnen said, many of the meteors are expected to be very bright. “So, maybe the moon does not make very much harm in the observations … I hope.”
UPDATE:
At the International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Prague today, Peter Jenniskens revealed his outlook for the 2007 Aurigid Meteor Shower. He forecast rates of at least 400, possibly even exceeding 1,000 meteors per hour.
This prediction is based on the modeling of the trajectories of dust particles ejected from comet Kiess, which in turn fits the three past outbursts of the Aurigids. But this time we will hit-according to the model-very close to the center of the dust cloud, within 39,000 miles (63,000 km.). Since this has never been the case with this shower before, there’s no way to know how strong the shower might be.
FULL STORY at:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/060817_meteor_shower.html
