Slashdot Mirror
Rare Meteor Event to Inform on Dangerous Comets
David Shiga writes "September 1, 2007 may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a rare meteor shower called the alpha Aurigids, New Scientist reports. Unlike better-known displays like the Perseids that occur every year on the same date, the alpha Aurigids have only been spotted three times before, in 1935, 1986, and 1994. NASA's Peter Jenniskens predicts they will return again this year, only to disappear again for the next 50 years. Meteor showers are caused by debris shed from comets, and the rarity of the alpha Aurigids is due to the exceptionally infrequent passes of its parent comet through the inner solar system, just once every 2000 years. Studying the alpha Aurigids could help astronomers turn these rare showers into an advance warning system for long period comets with potentially dangerous orbits, which would be hard to spot ahead of a collision with Earth."
So instead of a collision with Earth that kills hundreds of peope,
we have a huge panic that kills thousands.
great...
Then, when you are 71, viola!
Makes sense to me. As you get older you often acquire a taste for classical music.
Speaking of the Perseids.. might have mentioned that -those- are this week. Specifically, the 12th should be the high point, but from thursday through monday you may catch them. As luck (or stellar physics, I suppose) would have it - it'll be New Moon, so no moonlight interference.
This will be my third opportunity to see this particular "shower." I probably won't make it to the next one, 50 years hence. However, my three sons, born in 1976, 1979, and 1981, all have an opportunity to live through four arrivals of the shower. "Once in a lifetime"?? What the hell happened to responsible journalism, simple fact-checking, and plain old logic or arithmetic skills?
From TA: "Based on past showers, there should be up to 200 bright meteors visible per hour, and they may have an unusual blue-green colour."
[that's the info I wanted from the article... perfect timing since we'll be canoing with friends at that date... now, if only the god of blow-away-clouds can be with us...]
Animoog.org
"Based on past showers, there should be up to 200 bright meteors visible per hour, and they may have an unusual blue-green colour."
After which all who watched the pretty green meteors will be blind and the experimental carnivorous plants will eat them.
(Or at least that's how it went in _Day of the Triffids_ by Brian Aldiss.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Ok, but... how many rare showers are there? Do we have a dozen showers that we don't know which comet caused that may be sneaking up on us (again?)
Be honest here... how much of the sky is being watched at any one time?
I'd rather see a better effort to tracking undiscovered comets and asteroids. Or else a zillion years from now, alien archaeologists on Mars will find an AOL CD blown as ejecta from the crater that wiped out a technologically advanced race on the 3rd planet.
That certianly explains how the string instrument got its name.
Watching them only encourages them!
Shame on you for promoting the whole subject of potentially Earth-wreaking comets and their "oh-shiny" debris.
Avert your eyes!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Chris Crawford, the game designer, is organizing a project to build a three-dimensional map of the Augrid meteor shower, by combining the observations of many amateurs.
Details are here in his website.
No data, no cry
Fuck YOU! you punk!
..uhh...
I am 66, and I have had 28 Lifetime events!
Uhh, lesseee... OK. So I forgot about 23 of them, but nevertheless- Respect your elders, you li'l pupsquaick!
Wait! I think I remember event #21...
No...
Ah, well it's just/. No one will notice. Fuk, just a bunchakids anyhoo!
Zzzzz..
.
- aqk
F U