Meteor Showers
Posted: Saturday, May 28, 2005
by Rulx Narcisse
Meteor showers
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What is a meteor shower?
A meteor shower is a spectacular rain of dust across our atmosphere it is a very nice astronomic phenomenon to observe in the sky. It is a rendering of the entry of these space particles.
These particles were in “suspension" in the trajectory of the Earth during its motion around the Sun. They stay in place, relatively, and the Earth, as a car running its way, goes thru them. And then the particles enter the atmosphere, appearing as a rain or a show in the sky.
Over the night sky, this shower could be seen, due to the fact that these particles light up because of the atmospheric gas. This has been observed many times in the past, then many human interpretations have issued.
When these particles reach the ground, they are termed meteorite...
History
Have you ever heard about “étoile filante" or “Shooting star" or “falling star"? This is a general name given to meteorite entering the atmosphere because it looks like a star moving in the sky. In Haitian culture, some thinks about “loup garou" passing the area.
In the past, events in the sky were attributed to god’s activities. Superstitions about meteor showers stay longtime via different cultures and they were considered by some as very bad events or predictions.
The name “meteor" came from Greek word meteoros or meteora that means “object lighting high into the air" it is known since the Aristotle period (about 350 B.C.)
In the 17th century, some people have even though about meteorites coming from the cloud, but many scientific were skeptic about that.
The history reports people being hitting by meteorites coming from these showers. Some histories are even great, but one must analyze their veracity. For example in 1490 in the province of Shansi (Ch’ing-yang), a meteor shower would had resulted in 10’000 persons killed (even if other data report confirmed this meteor shower at that date, but no fatality has been noted…)
But one of the most important even about meteor shower and meteorite has happened in Siberia on June 30, 1908, and hundred of persons were present to assist the “fireball" coming and to even having some of their house windows broken by particles.
How it happens?
Where are these particles come from? They are in the trajectory of the planet around the Sun. They have been left there by another structure crossing this trajectory the most of the time, it was a comet.
When a comet pass and approaching the Sun, because of the temperature and the solar wind, it presents a tail with all the dust and gas coming from that comet and some of the particles (dust) are left behind in the trajectory. The comet goes its way but dust stay, waiting for the Earth coming in its regular movement.
When the Earth reach the zone where the dust has been left (as a rendezvous), the dust in “suspension" collide the planet atmosphere, creating the meteor shower and for someone looking this even from the surface of the planet, it looks like the shower is coming from only one part of the sky. This part is name the radiant.
Let’s take the example of a car running in a snowing period this analogy would make us better understand about the radiant. Inside that car running fast, all snow ball look like coming from only one point, striking the car.
Where and when it happens?
The particles and dust that have created the meteor showers came from celestial mass passing the Earth trajectory but in the planet history, many of these celestial masses have passed and the most of them are regular, like the comet.
They have crossed the Earth trajectory according to a celestial schedule, coming around the Sun and going away for a while Because of this celestial schedule, the dust have been left in the trajectory in a specific place and at a specific time.
So each time the Planet is in a particular position in its trajectory, it meets a particular dust group that has been left there at a precise moment.
That means we can predict meteor shower, and using history database of the comet or asteroid movements, we can even know the origin of each of these showers.
On the Earth surface, we use a celestial map to localize objects (stars, planets, asteroids, etc.). In this map, the constellations are used (there are 88 constellations, some visible from the north hemisphere of the Earth, some on the south)
When the meteor shower is watch in a constellation area, it takes the name of that constellation plus an “ids". For example, Eta Aquarids could be watch in the constellation Aquarius, and it happens each may because each may, the Earth is in this part of the trajectory that has been crossed by the Comet Halley. Each time Comet Halley crosses this trajectory, it leaves some dust that will enter the Earth atmosphere.
The meteor shower has fascinated people for years, and knowing the process will allow better appreciation of this event. Understanding it will allow us to anticipate and estimate some danger it could represent in the future the meteorite has a size, and reaching us could also make catastrophe...
For more information about meteor showers, visit:
Dr Rulx Narcisse
Rulx Narcisse is a Computer Programmer with particular interest in JAVA & Visual Basic and a lover of astronomy. He is a passionate of programming, too, blogging the most of his time. He is living with his wife Roselene in Haiti. His blog: My Programming Corner; his email; his phone number is: (509)3902-7435
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