by León » Thu Aug 12, 2010 1:19 pm
Complete with information extracted from
http://www.oarval.org/perseids.htm
One of the most prolific meteor showers is the Perseids. The radiant is in the constellation Perseus, and meteors from this shower can be seen over a period of about 3 weeks centered on August 12. In good years up to 70 meteors an hour can be seen near the peak.
This meteor stream is associated with Comet Swift-Tuttle, which passed close by the Sun in 1992.
As the meteors in the stream are thought to be dust particles released from the comet, it is thought likely that there is a dense stream of such particles in the path of the comet and located close to it.
The last time (1993) that the Earth passed through the comet's orbit just after the comet had been close to the Sun, there was a radical increase in the number of meteors seen, rising to about 300 an hour. It is thus likely that when the Earth passes through the comet's path on August 12, there may be a very high peak in the number of meteors seen.
The peak could well be only an hour long, and the exact time of the Earth passing through the maximum is only poorly known, and so it will be worth keeping a lookout from about midnight onwards, always assuming that the skies are clear!
As a prelude to propose the following overture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY4lqgqhujgComplete with information extracted from http://www.oarval.org/perseids.htm
One of the most prolific meteor showers is the Perseids. The radiant is in the constellation Perseus, and meteors from this shower can be seen over a period of about 3 weeks centered on August 12. In good years up to 70 meteors an hour can be seen near the peak.
This meteor stream is associated with Comet Swift-Tuttle, which passed close by the Sun in 1992.
As the meteors in the stream are thought to be dust particles released from the comet, it is thought likely that there is a dense stream of such particles in the path of the comet and located close to it.
The last time (1993) that the Earth passed through the comet's orbit just after the comet had been close to the Sun, there was a radical increase in the number of meteors seen, rising to about 300 an hour. It is thus likely that when the Earth passes through the comet's path on August 12, there may be a very high peak in the number of meteors seen.
The peak could well be only an hour long, and the exact time of the Earth passing through the maximum is only poorly known, and so it will be worth keeping a lookout from about midnight onwards, always assuming that the skies are clear!
As a prelude to propose the following overture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY4lqgqhujg