Meteor shower tonight

[SNDSOUL]

Anyone watching the meteor shower tonight? I went outside for about 5 mins and saw 4 pretty bright ones. Its amazing to me that these showers come back year after year at the same time to the hour?? How does that happen?

 

[NsXMas]

Where did you see it? I saw an amazing one tonight, looked like an UFO.

 

[SNDSOUL]

Where did you see it? I saw an amazing one tonight, looked like an UFO.

I live in the southeast and if I stand facing east northeast on my porch and look at about 45 degrees there seems to be about 1 per minute right now.

 

[NsXMas]

Did you make a wish? I wished for some nice mods

 

[SNDSOUL]

Did you make a wish? I wished for some nice mods

I did, I wished for some warmer weather :biggrin: It is unusually cold tonight!! I think it is supposed to make low 40's My bald head and ears cant take it!

 

[Patdeisa]

Anyone watching the meteor shower tonight? I went outside for about 5 mins and saw 4 pretty bright ones. Its amazing to me that these showers come back year after year at the same time to the hour?? How does that happen?

What's happening is that the earth is passing through the orbit of past comets, which happens multiple times each year. Since we base our calendar off of the earth's position in its orbit, we pass through the same spot each year at the same time, plus or minus 12 hours depending on the leap year cycle. The meteorites, just mass that separated from the comet, are just circling in orbit like any other body of mass, but the earth passes through the orbit, so they get sucked in by earth's gravity, and there you have your meteor shower. The meteor shower appears to be only at night, because the sun light and the refraction in the atmosphere prevents us from seeing it during the day, but they typically occur for several days continuously.

 

[KGP]

What's happening is that the earth is passing through the orbit of past comets, which happens multiple times each year. Since we base our calendar off of the earth's position in its orbit, we pass through the same spot each year at the same time, plus or minus 12 hours depending on the leap year cycle. The meteorites, just mass that separated from the comet, are just circling in orbit like any other body of mass, but the earth passes through the orbit, so they get sucked in by earth's gravity, and there you have your meteor shower. The meteor shower appears to be only at night, because the sun light and the refraction in the atmosphere prevents us from seeing it during the day, but they typically occur for several days continuously.

Wow, nice answer. Much better than the "duh - same planet in same orbit with same space debris" answer I was going to give. :biggrin:

 

[Ponyboy]

Pffft...I stayed up until midnight. Woke up again at 1:30am and 4:30am and didnt' see squat diddly. Pffft...stupid flying space thingies.