Rare Meteor Event to Inform on Dangerous Comets 64
David Shiga writes "September 1, 2007 may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a rare meteor shower called the alpha Aurigids, New Scientist reports. Unlike better-known displays like the Perseids that occur every year on the same date, the alpha Aurigids have only been spotted three times before, in 1935, 1986, and 1994. NASA's Peter Jenniskens predicts they will return again this year, only to disappear again for the next 50 years. Meteor showers are caused by debris shed from comets, and the rarity of the alpha Aurigids is due to the exceptionally infrequent passes of its parent comet through the inner solar system, just once every 2000 years. Studying the alpha Aurigids could help astronomers turn these rare showers into an advance warning system for long period comets with potentially dangerous orbits, which would be hard to spot ahead of a collision with Earth."
Re:We'll if you are 72 or so (Score:5, Funny)
Makes sense to me. As you get older you often acquire a taste for classical music.
Rare showers? how many? (Score:5, Funny)
Be honest here... how much of the sky is being watched at any one time?
I'd rather see a better effort to tracking undiscovered comets and asteroids. Or else a zillion years from now, alien archaeologists on Mars will find an AOL CD blown as ejecta from the crater that wiped out a technologically advanced race on the 3rd planet.
Re:Day of the Triffids? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Rare showers? how many? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:We'll if you are 72 or so (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Rare showers? how many? (Score:3, Funny)
Boycot meteor showers! (Score:3, Funny)
Watching them only encourages them!
Shame on you for promoting the whole subject of potentially Earth-wreaking comets and their "oh-shiny" debris.
Avert your eyes!
Re:We'll if you are 72 or so- Hey, try 66! (Score:2, Funny)
I am 66, and I have had 28 Lifetime events!
Uhh, lesseee... OK. So I forgot about 23 of them, but nevertheless- Respect your elders, you li'l pupsquaick!
Wait! I think I remember event #21...
No...
Ah, well it's just/. No one will notice. Fuk, just a bunchakids anyhoo!
Zzzzz..
Re:Rare showers? how many? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Rare showers? how many? (Score:4, Funny)