Perseid Meteor shower

Lily · Post by **Lily** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:29 pm

Ok, be it storm or shower just say I am fascinated by shooting stars as long as I don't get killed

.

Zong and Soulfrost, didn't notice you two are so young! And Zong you were already watching the metoer shower in 1999 when you were 12? I remembered my colleague asked me if I want to watch metoer showers. At that time I was so busy with my new born, I told them I consider myself lucky if I could have my shower, let alone watching metoer showers

. I have missed so much!

Lily

jennifer1611991 · Post by **jennifer1611991** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:47 pm

But wouldn't leo dissapear by then?

Post by **zong** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:29 pm

Um, yea, i started my interest in astronomy only theoretically, when i was only 10 years old. Only when i went sec 1 then i was invited to the 1-day-early meteor shower event..

Your children are so fortunate to be able to start appreciating the sky early.. May they be the einsteins of our future

chrisyeo · Post by **chrisyeo** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:30 pm

Hi Jennifer,

There's quite a lot of misunderstanding about meteor showers going around..

Meteors are bits of particles in space that burn up in our atmosphere. An increase in the number of meteors is known as a meteor shower. Meteors showers are associated with comets and are named after the areas of sky that they appear to come from (their radiants) because they are caused by bits of dust left over in the dust trail of a comet that passed by. As the earth moves through this dust trail, they appear to radiate from a single point in the sky.

These areas of cometary dust can be very large, thus a meteor shower period can last many days, and not just on the predicted peak where the earth is passing through the centre of that dust trail. Meteor shower peaks will have more meteors, but sometimes not much more than the period before or after the peak, so you do not need to watch a meteor shower at the exact day and time of the predicted peak to enjoy it.

Also, since the Leonids only refers to its radiant, Leo does not need to be visible for you to see meteors from the shower. While the center of the action may be below the horizon, meteors occur in every part of the sky, so you'll still be able to see an increase in meteor activity on the date.

Please see Answers.com for more information on Meteors and Meteor showers.

Clear skies!

chrisyeo · Post by **chrisyeo** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:41 pm

Hi Lily,

lol. "A meteor storm kills" is a figure of speech! Zongyao was just trying to say that seeing a meteor storm would be an incredible thing! A meteor shower is a normal increase in meteor activity associated with a comet trail, while a meteor outburst will be a 'relative enhancement' in meteor activity, and a meteor storm is a spectacular outburst.

Here is an engraving of the 1833 meteor storm (Made some decades later):

(note the stars in the background - if you can't see those stars, the chances are you can't see those meteors either! Meteor watching is really not that fun in Singapore

)

So a meteor storm is not something that hits the earth and kills; a meteor that hits the earth's surface is known as a meteorite.

I've posted some other information on meteor showers, you can read it here: http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php? ... 3ec3a69ba4

Cheers,
Chris

soulfrost · Post by **soulfrost** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:39 am

but didnt a dog died because a meteor crushed it?

.-.

Lily · Post by **Lily** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:10 am

Stop that Soulfrost, I am getting extremely paranoid

. I am born in the year of dog you know ! LOL

Yes Chris, I have seen that picture before. It left me a very deep impression. SInce meteor storm is so rare, I should be content with a shower

.

Lily

Post by **weixing** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:09 pm

Hi,
May be you guys interested in this:
http://astro.wsu.edu/worthey/astro/html ... rikes.html

Have a nice day.

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:19 pm

but didnt a dog died because a meteor crushed it?

A meteor crush a dog...not possible. Why?

Some simple definition is in order:

Meteoroid: piece of extraterrestial pebble/rock in space.
Meteor: light phenomenon we see when a meteoroid burns up in our atmosphere.
Meteorite: piece of that same extraterrestial pebble/rock that has landed on earth are called meteorites.

So, only a meteoroid has the potential to kill, not a meteor (light effect). But the risk from a meteoroid eventually crushing a dog (or someone born in the year of the dog) is very minimal.

There is a greater danger from asteroids (bigger extraterrestial rock) or comets hitting the earth and causing major catastrophic disasters every hundred million years or so. One scientific theory says that such an event happened 65 million years ago eventually wiped out the dinosaurs.

jennifer1611991 · Post by **jennifer1611991** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:01 pm

Thank you so much for the information:) I guess i'm just too inexperienced when it comes to all these technical terms and what not of a meteor shower. Actually, i just wanted to see more than one meteor at a time which is why i asked about it it..

Thanks so much anyways for clearing up some questions!