the sky is falling again alert (Page 1/1)
maryjane OCT 07, 10:40 AM
The Draconid meteor shower, which will send shooting stars across our night skies Wednesday through Sunday, Oct. 6-10, is that rare meteor shower that offers up most of its display in the evening rather than after midnight.

The radiant point for the Draconids is highest in the sky – near the head of the Draco the Dragon constellation in the northern sky – early in the evening, which produces the early night shower.


The peak of the shower is expected the evening of Friday, Oct. 8, which should be a good viewing night with a waxing crescent moon that will set before nightfall.

The Draconids usually are not an overly active meteor shower – normally 5-10 per hour – but have been known to blaze with hundreds, even thousands, of meteors per hour.

According to EarthSky.org, “This shower produced awesome meteor displays in 1933 and 1946, with thousands of meteors per hour seen in those years. European observers saw over 600 meteors per hour in 2011.”

The Draconids are debris left behind by Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, colliding with the Earth’s upper atmosphere as the planet’s orbit takes it through the debris stream.
https://www.mlive.com/news/...t-sky-this-week.html

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 10-07-2021).]

sourmash OCT 07, 10:46 AM
I went for the first 2 notices and saw nothing. Not 1 single event. Was driving along and saw a brilliant one that wasn't during a shower event. Greenish.
blackrams OCT 07, 11:09 AM
My wife appreciates these notices much more than I do but, they always result in her waking me at some point in the hours of darkness so I can go enjoy the shooting stars with her. Some day I'll learn to not tell her about this.

Rams
82-T/A [At Work] OCT 07, 11:13 AM

quote
Originally posted by maryjane:

[i]The Draconid meteor shower, which will send shooting stars across our night skies Wednesday through Sunday, Oct. 6-10, is that rare meteor shower that offers up most of its display in the evening rather than after midnight.





I preferred the lights of Marfa!
maryjane OCT 07, 12:46 PM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
I preferred the lights of Marfa!




Been there and saw them, but they were farther away and up against the Chisos when we saw them.
I was a skeptic until I saw them 1st hand but I still believe there is a reasonable explanation.
The different colors and rapid movements are hard to explain tho.
cvxjet OCT 07, 04:26 PM
30 years ago I went up in the Sierra Mtns (Dodge ridge ski resort) to watch a big Meteor shower- can NOT remember which one to save my life- anyway, took a Chaise lounge and sleeping bag and just laid there and saw a whole bunch- a few were relatively bright.

One of the biggest ever in history was the Leonids back in 1832-33.......There were numerous claims of over 8000 meteors in 15 minutes! Some people fainted because they thought the world was ending......

Here is a wood carving depicting the shower...

[This message has been edited by cvxjet (edited 10-07-2021).]

rinselberg OCT 07, 07:01 PM
I wonder how long cvxjet had to work at that wood carving.

Click to show
maryjane OCT 07, 08:45 PM
I've probably seen thousands of meteors in my adult lifetime.
Many, while at sea. There is no sky blacker than when viewed from the middle of the Pacific or Indian oceans.

My great grandmother witnessed the 1832 'meteor storm' during the Leonids event and made an entry in the family bible about it.
The Persids are the most actively viewed each year but it is the Leonids that have more frequent meteor storms. They come in mid-November. On average, the Leonids 'storm' about every 32-33 years. 2034 may herald another Leonid storm.
Mickey_Moose OCT 08, 02:53 PM
https://www.space.com/25657...ts-earth-theory.html


quote

Dark matter could sling lethal meteors at Earth, potentially causing mass extinctions like the cataclysm that ended the Age of Dinosaurs, Harvard scientists say.

Physicists think the mysterious, invisible substance called dark matter makes up five-sixths of all matter in the universe. It was first detected by the strength of its gravitational pull, which apparently helps keep the Milky Way and other galaxies from spinning apart, given the speeds at which they whirl.

Scientists have recently suggested that a thin, dense disk of dark matter about 35 light-years thick lies along the central plane of the Milky Way, cutting through the galaxy's disk of stars. The sun travels in an up-and-down, wavy motion through this plane while orbiting the center of the galaxy.

Researchers suggest this disk of clouds and clumps made of dark matter might disturb the orbits of comets in the outer solar system, hurling them inward. This could lead to catastrophic asteroid impacts on Earth, of the kind that likely ended the Age of Dinosaurs, said theoretical physicists Lisa Randall and Matthew Reece at Harvard University.

Past research has suggested meteor bombardment of Earth rises and falls in a cycle about 35 million years long. In the past, scientists have proposed a cosmic trigger for this cycle, such as a potential companion star for the sun with the dramatic name "Nemesis."

Instead of blaming a "death star" for these catastrophes, Randall and Reese point out that this cycle of doom closely matches the rate at which the sun passes through the central plane of the Milky Way. This hints that the galaxy's "dark disk" may be the actual culprit.

The researchers analyzed craters more than 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide created in the past 250 million years, and compared their pattern against the 35-million-year cycle. They found that it was three times more likely that the craters matched the dark matter cycle than that they occurred randomly.

This cycle might have killed off dinosaurs about 67 million years ago. "The cycle is slightly off for that mass extinction, but we have an incomplete data set regarding impact craters, so maybe with more information the cycle might fit what we know better," Randall told Space.com.

Although a three-to-one chance sounds impressive, the researchers cautioned that this statistical evidence is not overwhelming.

The scientists note that the European Space Agency's Gaia mission could reveal the existence or nonexistence of a dark matter disk. Launched in 2013, this mission will create a precise 3D map of stars throughout the Milky Way, potentially confirming or denying the existence of a dark disk that gravitationally influences stellar motions.

"Even if it's a remote possibility that dark matter can affect the local environment in ways that have noticeable consequences over long periods of time, it's still incredibly interesting," Randall said.

The scientists detailed their findings online April 20 in the journal Physical Review Letters.