Get Set for 2 Meteor Showers – Kiess and Perseids
If you're new here, you may want to sign up for email alerts or to subscribe to my RSS feed. Enjoy Life in the Fast Lane!
Comet Kiess passed the sun, ejecting a cloud of dust 2,000 years ago. The comet was discovered by Carl Kiess when it completed an orbit round earth in 1911. The dust took longer to return, forming a constant stream of dust particles which has been passing just outside Earth’s orbit ever since.
A Perseid fireball photographed August 12, 2006, by Pierre Martin of Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
Comet Kiess will be making a rare appearance once more on September 1, 2007, as the trail of dust crosses the Earth’s path, causing an exceptional meteor shower during the short period it takes the Earth to travel through its stream of dust, reports MSNBC.
The meteors emitted from Kiess — called Aurigids — are from the constellation of Auriga. Only 3 known people alive today have seen this shower, in 1935, 1986, and 1994. After the 2007 encounter, the Aurigids won’t be seen again during our lifetime, so you won’t want to miss this event.
The Aurigid shower will only last for one and a half hours, with a bright Moon in the sky. The Moon isn’t expected to dim the spectacle too much, as most Aurigids seen in the past were of reasonably bright magnitude meteors.
The shower will be visible by the naked eye in the western US, particularly in California, Hawaii, Alaska, other western states, and from Mexico and western provinces of Canada. Prime time viewing will be on Saturday, September 1, 2007, a half hour on either side of 4:36 a.m. PST. The entire event will last no longer than one and a half hours. Photo Jimmy Westlake, Stagecoach, Colorado USA August 8, 2007.
Sunlight has pushed the comet’s ejected particles into wider orbits around the sun in a thin stream just outside of Earth’s orbit. Occasionally, the combination of gravity of the solar system’s planets pulls the dust trail into Earth’s path. We only see this meteor shower when the Earth and the dust trail collide.
As they collide with the atmosphere, the dust grains of Kiess begin to vaporize at around 80 miles (130 kilometers) altitude, with the larger ones as low as 50 miles (80 kilometers), before they’re completely stopped. This scorching process creates a meteor.
Peter Jenniskens will lead a team of scientists and astronomers from NASA, the SETI Institute, and Utah State University aboard 2 aircraft from Moffett Field at NASA Ames, to view and study the Aurigid meteor display from high above the Pacific Ocean.
During the mission, researchers will count the meteors and measure the exact duration and peak time of the shower. They will also examine the colors and way of breaking of the meteors to learn about the materials that formed the solar system.
Viewing the Aurigid meteors may not only be rare, but they may also be very unusual. Some could be pieces from the comet’s pristine crust. Comet Kiess returned from the Oort cloud of comets on the outskirts of the solar system only recently.
Prior to that, Kiess spent 4.5 billion years in the Oort cloud, where cosmic rays baked its crust. Kiess could have shed some of this pristine crust 2000 years ago. Comets that return more frequently to the sun have long lost this pristine crust.
If such is the case, the meteors are expected to penetrate 3 miles (5 kilometers) deeper than normal in the atmosphere and lack a very specific color of yellow light from the element sodium.
Perseids Shower
The Perseid meteor shower happens every year around August 12, but is frequently washed out by the moon. This year should be perfect as there won’t be much of a moon. The meteor shower is already underway, but the peak doesn’t occur until Sunday August 12th around midnight through Monday the 13th. More than 10 shooting stars per hour can already be seen during the dark hours before dawn, and during its peak you might see 60 meteors an hour, reports Spaceweather.
Thomas O’Brien caught this green fireball on August 9th, streaking over the mountains near Aspen, Colorado.
“I saw lots of green and yellow meteors.” he said. Yellow can be a sign of sodium-rich meteoroids — the hot sodium vapors glow yellow like a sodium discharge lamp, and the green may be due to oxygen from the Earth’s atmosphere. When a meteoroid tears through the atmosphere, the air in its path becomes so hot that oxygen molecules briefly lose one of their electrons. They recombine very rapidly, emitting green photons as a result.
Astronauts onboard the ISS and shuttle Endeavour will watch the Perseid meteor shower from above.
Peter Jenniskens will set out on a privately owned Gulfstream GV plane to observe the Perseid shower and practice observations for the September 1st Aurigid shower. Twelve scientists are participating in the test flight, with a range of cameras and video camcorders. Each camera is uniquely suited to measure the rate of the meteors, their colors, how they break during impact, and how deep they penetrate in the atmosphere.
Tips for setting up a digital camera or camcorder for meteors
Digital cameras and camcorders can photograph these meteor streaks by pointing anywhere in the sky away from the moon.
Your best views are remote public parks or outside of cities to get away from the haze. Dust in the atmosphere in metropolitan areas will scatter moonlight and make the sky too bright to photograph or see the meteors well.
People videotaping the meteors should mount the camcorder on a tripod, pointing to a region in the sky that has a lot of bright stars, zooming in enough to see stars in the video.
Related stories:
Lunar Behavior during Full Moons
Who Owns the Moon & Planets of our Universe?
[...] Contact the Webmaster Link to Article digital cameras Get Set for 2 Meteor Showers – Kiess and Perseids » Posted at Life [...]
Fascinating article Deborah,
Should be quite spectacular as long as the skies remain clear. So many times over the years cloud has had 100% coverage lol, but there has been many a time when I have been down at the beach fishing at night and see some amazing sights in the night sky, as well as many of the man made objects out there floating by.
Now as for Lunar behaviour during Full Moons…I’m not even going to go there……my ex used to howl, sprout hair, razor like teeth and then whizz off on her broomstick….scary huh? LOL
Hopefully I will see it this year.
Very cool article!
We weren’t able to see the Summer Moon Illusion here at the end of June for that very reason Colin, it was storming all weekend. Out on the lake would be the perfect area to view things going on out in orbit.
I’m not going there either into the lunar behavior, haha!
Hope you do too Jane, it’s going to be spectacular.
Thanks Krystal
Just one question can it be viewed at all from Cape Town South Africa.
There was no mention of being able to witness anywhere outside of the North American continent Brandon, but Colin who left a comment above is from the UK where he was able to see the Perseids shower. It doesn’t hurt to at least try. It would be a shame to miss something like that unnecessarily.
Good point. Thanks, great site !
Thanks Brandon