Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks August 12-13

The Perseids have been active in our skies for a couple of weeks already, but the peak of the meteor shower is coming up in just a few days. Overnight at the end of August 12th and the beginning of August 13th, observers in clear and dark conditions can expect to see up to 100 meteors per hour. The meteor shower should be particularly good this year because it occurs just a day before the new moon, so the sky should be even darker than usual. Forbes has an article on how astronomers figured out where such meteor showers were coming from: In 1833, the regular Leonid meteor shower became spectacular, with 1000 meteors per hour creating a meteor storm. For the next 32 years, the Leonids were normal and quiet again, but in 1866, another storm appeared. John Couch Adams, the British astronomer who failed to find Neptune, correctly surmised where meteor showers came from, a picture that's been spectacularly confirmed for all known meteor showers, including this week's coming Perseids!

Comments

Re: Republicans are liars

[Anonymous Coward]

Or Photoshop. It's sad to see the number of people here that think you can see that with the naked eye. That is Republican level of science.

Re: Republicans are liars

[Anonymous Coward]

Or Photoshop. It's sad to see the number of people here that think you can see that with the naked eye. That is Republican level of science.

Spoken like someone with a Democrat sense of entitlement.

Re:HEY PIGS!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I just saw an article on google news that claimed women are discriminated against in the office with cold air conditioning.

Who wants to see a fat chick sweating... I'll take a good looking one with perky nipples any day. Keep it cool, brother.

Re:As if you can see "shooting" meteors

[Anonymous Coward]

While I'm no astronomer, I have seen shooting stars. Granted, I live in the middle of effin nowhere, and there's very little light pollution here, but I sure have seen shooting stars.

If they were a part of meteor showers is another matter. Dunno anything about those space-rock-thingies.

Re: As if you can see "shooting" meteors

[Anonymous Coward]

Sarcasm is only funny when done right. Please stop, you sound foolish.

Meteor showers and satellite risk

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always wondered how come the very large number of satellites in Earth orbit and also the space station don't get hit by the swarms of objects that are responsible for meteor showers.

Many of the larger objects and also space debris have been mapped and the ISS takes precautionary measures whenever there is a period of increased risk, but we haven't mapped the small objects that give rise to meteor showers so it's in the lap of the gods. And yet, we don't hear of the ISS getting hit during meteor showers, nor are satellites being knocked out of commission.

How come? I assume that "space is big" is the answer, but even so, meteor showers can be so dense that the total absense of reported damage year after year seems a bit unusual.

Re:Meteor showers and satellite risk

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of the stuff in meteor storms are sub-millimeter in size, which things like ISS and satellites can survive, at least mechanically, being hit. If you look around, there are already pop-sci articles discussing this and other issues that the showers can have, e.g. one at NatGeo. For more technically and dry coverage, look for something discussing longevity of solar panels in space, where damage from micrometeorites is an on going deterioration process. Also space is big, and even if you paint a 100 m stripe of an orbit around Earth, the chances of something that is pointed at Earth from one side hitting that is on the order of 10 ppm, and even smaller if you place the object somewhere on that orbit instead of trying to count what goes through the orbit at any point.

Re:Meteor showers and satellite risk

[Anonymous Coward]

Get Kerbal Space Program on Steam, see how hard it is to hit earth with anything!!

No but seriously great game, is comfortably in my list of top 5 games evar.

Re:As if you can see "shooting" meteors

[Anonymous Coward]

Like clockwork, every since article about meteors and comets has a troll claiming you can't see them with the naked eye. You might as well start copying that old spam posting saying the Moon doesn't exist either. I would say the clockwork-like posting is just like meteors, except they aren't even that regular themselves, considering you can see meteors on nights without showers at a rate of one or two an hour under good viewing conditions.

Re:As if you can see "shooting" meteors

[Anonymous Coward]

I have seen shooting stars as well, especially the Perseids. I don't know the origin of this "can't see shooting meteors" meme.

But I have to say they are quite hard to get on camera even with long exposure times. So I do think a lot of nice photos of shooting stars are digitally enhanced, at least to make the "line" stand out more.

If you remember, check out the Perseids next week. It's the best night for shooting stars.

Re:As if you can see "shooting" meteors

[Gavagai80]

You can see them in a city too, you just need more patience.

"Maximum," not "Up to"

[Anonymous Coward]

Or this is the same 'up to' as your ISP promises. There have been lots of storms that have never come close to their peak predicted value. And even that is an average - you'll go a half hour and not see nary a thing and then in five minutes see fifteen of them go by and then a five minute break and then see another twenty over the next ten minutes.

That said, yes the Perseids are often the best of the year and most credible reporting sources are saying this one should be better than average. But as an (very!) amateur astronomer I'd tone down the hype a little. It can only lead to false expectation and wouldn't diminish the glory if it is accurate.