More 2007 meteor showers on the way!

Comets are very old travellers in the solar system. Most scientists believe that comets originate from a circular debris field surrounding the solar system at a huge distance (1000 times the distance between the sun and Pluto!). While nobody has verified this by telescope, it is called the Oort cloud after the Dutch astronomer who hypothesised it’s existence. The Oort cloud is thought to be the remains of the original material which formed the solar system approximately 4.6 billion years ago. Comets which drift within gravitational reach of planets in the solar system can be pulled in deeper towards the sun, then ‘slingshot’ around our star and make their way back out to the outer solar system.

Comets are usually less than 40km across but the trail we can see behind them as they rush towards the sun can stretch over 120 million km or more – very close to the distance between the earth and the sun! Comet orbits around the sun can be difficult to keep track of due to the influence of the planets in the solar system ‘bending’ the comet’s path with their gravitational influence. Some scientist believe that Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, with the greatest gravitational attraction, acts as a ‘comet vacuum cleaner’, sucking up stray comets which come too close and pulling them down into it’s own atmosphere. Such an event was photographed with telescopes in 1994 when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter.

How you might get to see other meteor showers!

We’ve produced two simple charts as a guide to the 29 largest meteor showers which are predicted for 2007. As of the date of publication of this article, 15 of these are still waiting for your eager eyes!

Our chart is comprised of two downloadable pages, the first is a list of all the showers and includes information on best dates to view, a rough guide to location where the meteor shower might be visible, how many meteors you could see per hour, how fast they’re travelling on average and an indication of the moon phase – as yes, bright full moons may obscure some of the smaller meteor streaks.

The second downloadable page contains a few very simple instructions on how to use the chart, some helpful hints and a handy reference earth map which you can use to see if you might be able to see the meteor shower you’re interested in.

FirstScience.com will keep you informed of any upcoming large meteor showers – and we’ll publish another calendar for 2008 in December of this year.

As well, within the links to books to the right of this article you’ll find some handy reference and star maps in case you wanted to get a better idea of where to look for meteor showers or other astronomical wonders. And of course, our shop has all sorts of kit which you can use to explore the skies.

If you’re lucky enough to catch a great image of a meteor shower with your camera, please send it our way – we’d love to share it with our readers!

Most of all, invite friends and enjoy yourself!

Downloads

FirstScience-2007-MeteorShowers.pdf (440 kb)

FirstScience-MeteorShower-guide.pdf (1.2 Mb)

For more information

NASA – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 – Jupiter collision
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/

NASA – 2007 Aurigid Meteor Shower predictions!
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/08aug_aurigids.htm