[meteorite-list] Leonids in Colorado (2)

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:47:12 2004
Message-ID: <3BF90177.809D4605_at_lehrer1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>

Anne wrote:

> When is the next one?

Hello Anne and List,

You may look forward to watching December's Geminid shower, which is
due to peak on the night of December 13-14. The shower's shooting stars
radiate from a point (at 7h 30min, +33', near Castor). The radiant is
high in the sky which means you can see the shower at a convenient hour
- any time after about 10 p.m. The activity peak lasts for about a day.
In recent years there have been maximum rates of 110 to 130 hourly. Of
course, any source of light pollution will greatly reduce the number.
Interestingly, they do not come from cometary debris but probably 3200
Phaeton, an Earth-crossing asteroid in an unusually elongated orbit!
This provenance also explains why Geminid particles are denser than
theose fluffy cometary particles: about 2 g/cm^3 and theGeminids are
only about half as swift as the Leonids - namely 35 km/s when they
encounter Earth.


Best regards,

Bernd
Received on Mon 19 Nov 2001 07:56:23 AM PST