Look Up! Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Aug. 11-12

Asteroid Watch logo. Aug. 2, 2016 Make plans now to stay up late or set the alarm early next week to see a cosmic display of “shooting stars” light up the night sky. Known for it’s fast and bright meteors, the annual Perseid meteor shower is anticipated to be one of the best potential meteor viewing opportunities this year. The Perseids show up every year in August when Earth ventures through trails of debris left behind by an ancient comet. This year, Earth may be in for a closer encounter than usual with the comet trails that result in meteor shower, setting the stage for a spectacular display.

Image above: An outburst of Perseid meteors lights up the sky in August 2009 in this time-lapse image. Stargazers expect a similar outburst during next week’s Perseid meteor shower, which will be visible overnight on Aug. 11 and 12. Image Credits: NASA/JPL. “Forecasters are predicting a Perseid outburst this year with double normal rates on the night of Aug. 11-12,” said Bill Cooke with NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office in Huntsville, Alabama. “Under perfect conditions, rates could soar to 200 meteors per hour.” An outburst is a meteor shower with more meteors than usual. The last Perseid outburst occurred in 2009. Every Perseid meteor is a tiny piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 133 years. Each swing through the inner solar system can leave trillions of small particles in its wake. When Earth crosses paths with Swift-Tuttle’s debris, specks of comet-stuff hit Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate in flashes of light. These meteors are called Perseids because they seem to fly out of the constellation Perseus. Most years, Earth might graze the edge of Swift-Tuttle’s debris stream, where there’s less activity. Occasionally, though, Jupiter’s gravity tugs the huge network of dust trails closer, and Earth plows through closer to the middle, where there’s more material. This may be one of those years. Experts at NASA and elsewhere agree that three or more streams are on a collision course with Earth. “Here’s something to think about. The meteors you’ll see this year are from comet flybys that occurred hundreds if not thousands of years ago,” said Cooke. “And they’ve traveled billions of miles before their kamikaze run into Earth’s atmosphere.” How to Watch the Perseids The best way to see the Perseids is to go outside between midnight and dawn on the morning of Aug. 12. Allow about 45 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Lie on your back and look straight up. Increased activity may also be seen on Aug. 12-13. For stargazers experiencing cloudy or light-polluted skies, a live broadcast of the Perseid meteor shower will be available via Ustream overnight on Aug. 11-12 and Aug. 13-14, beginning at 10 p.m. EDT.: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

Meteor Moment: Viewing Tips.

More about the Perseids Perseid meteors travel at the blistering speed of 132,000 miles per hour (59 kilometers per second). That’s 500 times faster than the fastest car in the world. At that speed, even a smidgen of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it collides with Earth’s atmosphere. Peak temperatures can reach anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit as they speed across the sky. The Perseids pose no danger to Earth. Most burn up 50 miles above our planet. But an outburst could mean trouble for spacecraft. About the Meteoroid Environment Office It’s Cooke’s job to help NASA understand and prepare for risks posed by meteoroids. He leads a team of meteor experts in the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. They study meteoroids in space so that NASA can protect our nation’s satellites, spacecraft and even astronauts aboard the International Space Station from these bits of tiny space debris. Related links: Meteors & Meteorites: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/watchtheskies/index.html Meteoroid Environments Office: https://www.nasa.gov/offices/meo/home/index.html Image (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Jennifer Harbaugh. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

More Posts from Evisno and Others

evisno

10 years ago

New Discoveries about Star Formation in the Flame Nebula

Stars are often born in clusters, in giant clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have studied two star clusters using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared telescopes and the results show that the simplest ideas for the birth of these clusters cannot work.

This composite image shows one of the clusters, NGC 2024, which is found in the center of the so-called Flame Nebula about 1,400 light years from Earth. In this image, X-rays from Chandra are seen as purple, while infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope are colored red, green, and blue.

A study of NGC 2024 and the Orion Nebula Cluster, another region where many stars are forming, suggest that the stars on the outskirts of these clusters are older than those in the central regions. This is different from what the simplest idea of star formation predicts, where stars are born first in the center of a collapsing cloud of gas and dust when the density is large enough.

Credit: NASA/Spitzer/Chandra

740 notes View Post

evisno

7 years ago

Métaphore D’un Voyage Initiatique Au Coeur De L’oreille Adapté Aux Enfants :

Métaphore d’un voyage initiatique au coeur de l’oreille adapté aux enfants :

- traversée de l’onde aérienne en avion à l’intérieur du conduit auditif jusqu’à la membrane du tympan

- découverte de l’onde mécanique sur la chaîne des osselets en vue de la fenêtre ovale

- plongée de l’onde de pression dans la cochlée qui contient l’organe de l’audition relié au cerveau

68 notes View Post

evisno

2 years ago

In The Garden. Värmland, Sweden (October 23, 2015).

In the garden. Värmland, Sweden (October 23, 2015).

524 notes View Post

evisno

10 years ago

Stardust Not Likely to Block Planet Portraits

W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes logo. December 2, 2014

Image above: A dusty planetary system (left) is compared to another system with little dust in this artist’s conception. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Planet hunters received some good news recently. A...

42 notes View Post

evisno

8 years ago

8 notes View Post

evisno

9 years ago

Have Astronomers Found Alien Megastructures After All? (No, Probably Not)

Have Astronomers Found Alien Megastructures After All? (No, Probably Not)

“We’ve often found that — when it comes to unexpected astronomical signals — our imaginations run away with us, leading us to immediately jump to conclusions about our greatest hopes and/or fears, like the existence of sentient aliens accessible to us. But the real Universe, every time thus far, has shown itself to be more diverse, complex, and rich in phenomena than we had previously realized, including the existence of quasars, pulsars, exoplanets and more. We haven’t yet ruled out the possibility of alien megastructures, but what we’re most likely seeing is a new type of natural phenomena whose origin is yet unknown. Follow-up observations, particularly those scheduled for 2017, when another major “transit” event is scheduled to occur, should teach us a whole lot more.”

Last year, Penn State astronomer Jason Wright made headlines by claiming that one of the stars being observed by NASA’s Kepler mission might contain alien megastructures around it. The large dips in its light curve didn’t make sense in the context of planets, and the star KIC 8462852 became the target of a great many follow-ups. A binary companion was found, along with no signs of excess infrared emission or artificial radio signatures. However, archival data recently found that the star dimmed by about 20% over the past century. While the alien megastructures possibility cannot be ruled out, a great many other astrophysical possibilities still survive.

40 notes View Post

evisno

8 years ago

1976 … space station colonies

by x-ray delta one

92 notes View Post

evisno

7 years ago

Ask Ethan: Could The Fabric Of Spacetime Be Defective?

Ask Ethan: Could The Fabric Of Spacetime Be Defective?

“The topic I’d like to suggest is high-energy relics, like domain walls, cosmic strings, monopoles, etc… it would be great to read more about what these defects really are, what their origin is, what properties they likely have, or, and this is probably the most exciting part for me, how we expect them to look like and interact with the ‘ordinary’ universe.”

So, you’d like to ruin the fabric of your space, would you? Similar to tying a knot in it, stitching it up with some poorly-run shenanigans, running a two-dimensional membrane through it (like a hole in a sponge), etc., it’s possible to put a topological defect in the fabric of space itself. This isn’t just a mathematical possibility, but a physical one: if you break a symmetry in just the right way, monopoles, strings, domain walls, or textures could be produced on a cosmic scale. These could show up in a variety of ways, from abundant new, massive particles to a network of large-scale structure defects in space to a particular set of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. Yet when it comes time to put up or shut up, the Universe offers no positive evidence of any of these defects. Save for one, that is: back in 1982, there was an observation of one (and only one) event consistent with a magnetic monopole. 35 years later, we still don’t know what it was.

It’s time to investigate the possibilities, no matter how outlandish they seem, on this week’s Ask Ethan!

102 notes View Post

evisno

10 years ago

Life Advice From 50 Beloved Characters In Kid’s Entertainment By AAA State Of Play -source-

Life Advice from 50 Beloved Characters in Kid’s Entertainment by AAA State of Play -source-

6K notes View Post

evisno

4 years ago

I believe in free education, one that’s available to everyone; no matter their race, gender, age, wealth, etc… This masterpost was created for every knowledge hungry individual out there. I hope it will serve you well. Enjoy!

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Alison

Coursera

FutureLearn

open2study

Khan Academy

edX

P2P U

Academic Earth

iversity

Stanford Online

MIT Open Courseware

Open Yale Courses

BBC Learning

OpenLearn

Carnegie Mellon University OLI

University of Reddit

Saylor

IDEAS, INSPIRATION & NEWS (websites which deliver educational content meant to entertain you and stimulate your brain)

TED

FORA

Big Think

99u

BBC Future

Seriously Amazing

How Stuff Works

Discovery News

National Geographic

Science News

Popular Science

IFLScience

YouTube Edu

NewScientist

DIY & HOW-TO’S (Don’t know how to do that? Want to learn how to do it yourself? Here are some great websites.)

wikiHow

Wonder How To

instructables

eHow

Howcast

MAKE

Do it yourself

FREE TEXTBOOKS & E-BOOKS

OpenStax CNX

Open Textbooks

Bookboon

Textbook Revolution

E-books Directory

FullBooks

Books Should Be Free

Classic Reader

Read Print

Project Gutenberg

AudioBooks For Free

LibriVox

Poem Hunter

Bartleby

MIT Classics

Many Books

Open Textbooks BCcampus

Open Textbook Library

WikiBooks

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES & JOURNALS

Directory of Open Access Journals

Scitable

PLOS

Wiley Open Access

Springer Open

Oxford Open

Elsevier Open Access

ArXiv

Open Access Library

LEARN:

1. LANGUAGES

Duolingo

BBC Languages

Learn A Language

101languages

Memrise

Livemocha

Foreign Services Institute

My Languages

Surface Languages

Lingualia

OmniGlot

OpenCulture’s Language links

2. COMPUTER SCIENCE & PROGRAMMING

Codecademy

Programmr

GA Dash

CodeHS

w3schools

Code Avengers

Codelearn

The Code Player

Code School

Code.org

Programming Motherf*?$%#

Bento

Bucky’s room

WiBit

Learn Code the Hard Way

Mozilla Developer Network

Microsoft Virtual Academy

3. YOGA & MEDITATION

Learning Yoga

Learn Meditation

Yome

Free Meditation

Online Meditation

Do Yoga With Me

Yoga Learning Center

4. PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMMAKING

Exposure Guide

The Bastards Book of Photography

Cambridge in Color

Best Photo Lessons

Photography Course

Production Now

nyvs

Learn About Film

Film School Online

5. DRAWING & PAINTING

Enliighten

Ctrl+Paint

ArtGraphica

Google Cultural Institute

Drawspace

DragoArt

WetCanvas

6. INSTRUMENTS & MUSIC THEORY

Music Theory

Teoria

Music Theory Videos

Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Dave Conservatoire

Petrucci Music Library

Justin Guitar

Guitar Lessons

Piano Lessons

Zebra Keys

Play Bass Now

7. OTHER UNCATEGORIZED SKILLS

Investopedia

The Chess Website

Chesscademy

Chess.com

Spreeder

ReadSpeeder

First Aid for Free

First Aid Web

NHS Choices

Wolfram Demonstrations Project

Please feel free to add more learning focused websites.

*There are a lot more learning websites out there, but I picked the ones that are, as far as I’m aware, completely free and in my opinion the best/ most useful.

532K notes View Post