Meteor Shower at 4:30 am PST

[Beansent]

Once in a lifetime event. For all who's up and sees this thread, please take pictures because I don't have my camera and post them up here. It's something no one will regret doing. I'll update after I see it.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...g_aurigids.htm

August 8, 2007: Will they come, or will they not? That is the question.

On Sept. 1, 2007, a flurry of bright and oddly-colored meteors might?emphasis on might--come streaming out of the constellation Auriga, putting on a beautiful early morning show for sky watchers in western North America: sky map.

Right: An early morning meteor over Italy in Nov. 2006. This is what an Aurigid might look like. Photo credit: Antonio Finazzi.

The source of the putative shower is Comet Kiess (C/1911 N1), a mysterious "long-period comet" that has visited the inner solar system only twice in the past two thousand years. In 83 BC, give or take a few centuries, Comet Kiess swung by the sun and laid down a trail of dusty debris that has been drifting toward Earth's orbit ever since. On Sept. 1, 2007, the dusty trail and Earth will meet.

But will a shower actually materialize? The answer lies in the unknown contents of the debris stream.

"We have so little experience with ancient debris from long-period comets," notes Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "Almost anything could happen?from a fizzle to a beautiful meteor shower."

Astronomers were first alerted seven years ago to the possibility of a shower by Finnish astronomer Esko Lyytinen and Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA?both are accomplished meteor forecasters who study the dynamics of cometary dust trails. Jenniskens has since teamed with Jeremie Vaubaillon of Caltech to refine the forecast using a debris stream model developed by Vaubaillon.

"We expect the outburst to peak at 11:36 UT (4:36 a.m. PDT) +/- 20 minutes on Sept. 1st," says Jenniskens. "The whole event should last about 2 hours and be visible from California, Oregon, Hawaii and the eastern Pacific Ocean."

see caption

Above: Earth at the time of the shower's predicted peak. Darkness favors sky watchers west of the Rocky Mountains. [Larger image]

An independent model of the debris stream calculated by Danielle Moser, a colleague of Cooke at the MEO, predicts a peak time of 11:26 UT. "That's in good agreement with Jenniskens and Vaubaillon," says Cooke. "However, our model predicts a mostly empty stream and a very weak shower."

"Personally, I think the meteor rate will reach 100 per hour at best," notes Vaubaillon, "but some colleagues are more optimistic, so, suspense, suspense!!!"

Earth has had at least three encounters with the debris stream in the past century?in 1935, 1986, and 1994. Unfortunately, few people were outdoors paying attention. The best observed encounter was in 1994 when veteran meteor watchers Bob Lunsford and George Zay of southern California witnessed a number of bright blue-green meteors emerging from Auriga. The brief shower was remarkable both for its conspicuous lack of faint meteors and for the vivid colors--characteristics that may be repeated on Sept. 1st.


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Meteors from long-period comets are of special interest for two reasons:

#1 -- Long period comets almost always take us by surprise. They linger in the outer solar system, hiding in the dark for thousands or millions of years, until their slow orbits turn them sunward and--in they plunge! Because of this surprise factor, long period comets pose a unique impact threat. Jenniskens and others are keen to study meteor showers from long period comets because the showers could be a "tell" that a comet is out there, and the orbit of the meteoroids can reveal where.

#2 -- Meteors from long period comets may be very primitive. Consider the following: Most meteor showers (e.g., the Perseids and Leonids) are caused by short period comets, which pass through the inner solar system every few decades or, at most, centuries. Their icy surfaces are frequently heated and vaporized by intense sunlight, and the comet dust they produce is correspondingly fresh. Long period comets, on the other hand, are rarely sun-blasted, and their surfaces may retain ancient substances formed by billions of years of cosmic ray exposure in the outer solar system. Flakes from this "pristine crust" may produce odd colors when they hit Earth's atmosphere.

Is that why the Aurigid meteors of 1994 were blue-green? Were they bits of pristine crust from Comet Kiess? Again, no one knows.

see captionJenniskens notes that another meteor outburst, the alpha Monocerotids of 1995, also thought to hail from an unknown long-period comet, was strange: "The alpha-Monocerotids penetrated 5 km deeper in the atmosphere than other meteors of similar size and speed and they had [an unusually] low content of sodium."

Right: Flight path of Jenniskens' airborne Aurigid observing campaign. [More]

To get to the bottom of some of these mysteries, Jenniskens and colleagues from the NASA Ames Research Center, Utah State University, the USAF Academy and elsewhere will board two private jets to observe the Aurigids from the clear air of 45,000 feet. They'll use spectrometers, cameras and telescopes to measure the velocity, penetration, and chemical composition of incoming meteoroids.

Bill Cooke of the MEO won't be on board, but he wishes the flyers well. "If this shower actually happens, they data they collect may tell us new things about an important population of meteoroids in the solar system. Plus, it would be a good show for people on the ground."

Sept. 1, 2007: The answers await.

[Ruffian]

The meteors will show up, there on cell tech this year

[bongd]

Going outside to check... if I see no meteors, I'm coming back to fap and call it a night.

[Beansent]

update-I saw a streak going across the sky but it went very fast. It could be wishful thinking but I'm sure it wasn't something ordinary. Alright I'm going back out.

[Clipto19]

bro the meteor shower was on my birthday, the whole weekend of august 12th. I seen it personally and made a thread about it. dunno wtf this September 1st **** is about but its 7:20am and im sleepy as **** after a long night of drinking and ima go to sleep in like 5 mins. give me cliffs about it tomorrow.

[Ruffian]

Yeah I see a cluster **** of starts and what not in just one side....I think its it...I am gonna check back in a few minutes, then going to play poker/sleep

[bongd]

Just fapped... will head out again to investigate said meteor shower.

[82nd_Fister]

Wow, Too bad I won't see them in Iraq

[Clipto19]

Originally Posted by 82nd_Fister

Wow, Too bad I won't see them in Iraq

You're 19.

[Beansent]

Originally Posted by Clipto19

You're 19.

You're 19.

Maybe he lives in Iraq iruno.

[Lucky_ROA]

its only viewable to the west coast of North America

[Clipto19]

Originally Posted by Lucky_ROA

its only viewable to the west coast of North America

lawl. sorry son but east coast > west coast. **** SON.

[bongd]

Originally Posted by Clipto19

lawl. sorry son but east coast > west coast. **** SON.

You live in Georgia.

[Clipto19]

Originally Posted by browndustin

You live in Georgia.

You have a gay accent. (no offense)

[bongd]

Originally Posted by Clipto19

You have a gay accent. (no offense)

Eh?

[sd2]

I didn't see anything.

[Fon7ana]

wtf i missed it?

[Clipto19]

Originally Posted by browndustin

Eh?

southern deep accent > gay high pitched northern accent

[bongd]

Originally Posted by Clipto19

southern deep accent > gay high pitched northern accent

I DO declare!

[Camel Baron]

Originally Posted by browndustin

I DO declare!

you are 21

[Muscle1.]

No, I won't wake up to see some burning rocks travel through space; did it once. Seen one, you seen them all.

[Clipto19]

Originally Posted by Muscle1.

No, I won't wake up to see some burning rocks travel through space; did it once. Seen one, you seen them all.

the meteor shower on my birthday was pretty sweet though, my first time seeing one. was pretty cloudy from raining all day, but the meteor was in a spot beside the cloud and it was cool cos it was like the only star in the sky but it wasnt a star, then it was shaking and moving around and getting brighter and all that. cool as hell for the first time thats for sure . was about 20 days ago.

[82nd_Fister]

Originally Posted by Beansent

You're 19.

Maybe he lives in Iraq iruno.

Maybe he's deployed to Iraq

[Muscle1.]

Originally Posted by Clipto19

the meteor shower on my birthday was pretty sweet though, my first time seeing one. was pretty cloudy from raining all day, but the meteor was in a spot beside the cloud and it was cool cos it was like the only star in the sky but it wasnt a star, then it was shaking and moving around and getting brighter and all that. cool as hell for the first time thats for sure . was about 20 days ago.

I stayed up to see one with my dad, I liked that alot...Something I'll never forget watching it with him.

[Mindi911]

Originally Posted by 82nd_Fister

Maybe he's deployed to Iraq

Don't feel so bad I can't see in the UK either