alpha Aurigids Meteor Shower

[SteveL]

As well as the Persieds this weekend, lets hope for clear skies on 1st Sept

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12443-rare-meteor-shower-to-shed-light-on-dangerous-comets.html

The best view of the meteors will be from the west coast of North America, before dawn on 1 September. Based on past showers, there should be up to 200 bright meteors visible per hour, and they may have an unusual blue-green colour.

Lets hope its at least visible from the UK

[zhgutas]

I'm afraid we won't be able to appreciate all its splendour here.. :? cause if the best time to observe is the west coast of N America at the dawn, doesn't that mean we'll be lying in the sun by then? :? There is a high possibility I'm wrong though (and I hope I am!! )

Marius

[Astroman]

Oh brother. There are a number of flaws in the conclusions of this article. I can't help but wonder if they listened to the experts they (mis)quote. The shower itself isn't all that rare. I distinctly remember seeing them during a Perseid shower or two, as they come from a slightly different direction. The issue with this shower in particular is, it may be more intense than usual, according to Sky and Telescope. Fist they say the debris stream is like a hose spraying all over the place due to the influence of Jupiter and Saturn's gravity, then they say they can take the comet's orbit, projected from the stream, to determine if it will imperil the Earth. Which one is it? Third, I'd like to know how they come up with cosmic ray impacts creating a hardened shell around anything, much less the typical icey dirtball of a comet. Cosmic rays are known to be high velocity sobatomic particles, such as protons. Collisions in our atmosphere create particle and photon showers that occasionally penetrate deep enough to be detected at ground level. Cosmic rays impacting icey dirt may chip off some outer particles, but wouldn't harden an object. If anything, I'd think it would soften it, but not permanently, until the separated particles rejoined with something as they'd be wont to do.

I don't buy it, but I'm still looking forward to the shower. I'll let you know if we see any.