Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. GPS News .




DEEP IMPACT
Meteor shower to peak over holiday weekend
by Brooks Hays
Washington (UPI) May 22, 2013


disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

Good news for star-gazers and night owls: a giant mess of space debris is making its way towards Earth. That means another meteor shower -- a really big one.

The meteors are expected to begin burning up in Earth's atmosphere on Friday, with the shower picking up steam overnight into Saturday and keeping pace through the weekend.

Some meteor showers, like the Perseids, arrive once a year. But the Camelopardalids -- named for a constellation, also known as 'the giraffe,' near the North Star -- are brand new, the rocky remnants of a recently discovered Comet 209P/LINEAR.

For East Coast residents, the prime time to see a whole bunch of shooting stars will be between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. Some forecasts predict as many as 200 meteors per hour. Still others predict 1,000 meteors per hour.

But not everyone's so sure the show will go off without a hitch. Bill Cooke, lead for NASA's Meteroid Environment Office, says it could be a dud.

"We find new meteor showers all the time, but they're like one meteor a night so you wouldn't even notice them," Cooke said. "This is a very rare event... It could be nothing or it could be the best meteor shower of the year."

Cooke says these meteors are slow-moving, which means they won't burn as bright when they hit. In order to be visible, the chunks of debris will have to be quite large. To find out if they will be, Cooke says, we'll have to wait and see.

.


Related Links
Asteroid and Comet Impact Danger To Earth - News and Science






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








DEEP IMPACT
A New Meteor Shower in May?
Huntsville AL (SPX) May 08, 2014
The head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, Dr. Bill Cooke, often lets cameras do his sky watching for him. He and his colleagues operate a nationwide network of automated fireball observatories that capture anything that burns into Earth's atmosphere. On the morning of May 24th, however, he plans to go out in person. "There could be a new meteor shower, and I want to see it wit ... read more


DEEP IMPACT
China Bright Food to buy majority stake in Israel's Tnuva

Shrub growth decreases as winter temps warm up

The Added Value of Local Food Hubs

Big drop in wintertime fog needed by fruit and nut crops

DEEP IMPACT
Neuromorphic Electronic circuits for Building Autonomous Cognitive Systems

Merger planned of electronic component providers

New analysis eliminates a potential speed bump in quantum computing

Magnetic Compass Orientation in Birds Builds Case for Bio-Inspired Sensors

DEEP IMPACT
A high-efficiency aerothermoelastic analysis method

Infor, BAE Systems strike deal on software

Thales to produce A400M flight simulator for Britain

Real-time flight tracking possible, not expensive: Airbus official

DEEP IMPACT
Business-as-usual model for heavy-duty vehicles in Europe unsustainable

Three-wheel Segway now available

US auto parts maker to outsource interiors to China

Google self-driving car coming around the corner

DEEP IMPACT
With hacking case, US hopes fade that China can play by 'rules'

Africans held 'captive' on China-flagged vessel in Uruguay

China to rein supreme in world commodities in 2014: report

China evacuates 3,000 nationals from Vietnam after deadly unrest

DEEP IMPACT
International standards reducing insect stowaways in wood packaging material

Canadian forestry firm sues over environmental audit

Emissions From Forests Influence Very First Stage of Cloud Formation

Emerald ash borers were in US long before first detection

DEEP IMPACT
MMS Narrated Orbit Viz: Unlocking The Secrets of Magnetic Reconnection

New Japan satellite to survey disasters, rain forests

Earth Science Applications Travelogue: Maury Estes

GOES-R Propulsion and System Modules Delivered

DEEP IMPACT
Engineers build world's smallest, fastest nanomotor

Nanoscale heat flow predictions

Harnessing Magnetic Vortices for Making Nanoscale Antennas

New method for measuring the temperature of nanoscale objects discovered




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.