[Comets]
: The earth passes through the Taurid meteor stream 24th
June - 6th July and again 3rd November - 15th November. This stream
contains approximately 200 asteroids of more
than 1km in diameter.
Toutatis an asteroid, is three miles long and
one and a half miles wide. It passed near Earth in November last year
and will return in 2004 but next time, will be even closer than before. Dr David Hughes of Sheffield
University pointed out that if the rogue asteroid did come too close
to the Earth, it would be too big to divert safely with nuclear missiles, a tactic favoured by the American
space agency, NASA. Jeffreys added, "Depending on where the asteroid
struck, the damage would range from devastating to annihilation." It appears the chances of
us all being wiped out by Toutatis are about 1 in 5,000, higher on
average for the next 30 years as Earth's irregular orbit takes us into danger.
: Jimi Hendrix and "Rock Prophecy"
Shoemaker Levy 9, a short
period comet discovered in March 1993 - it had a parent nucleus size
of ~10 km [Sekanina, Chodas, Yeomans]. It made a very
close approach to Jupiter in summer 1992, when it broke
into 21 fragments -It impacted into Jupiter July 1994.
......Hendrix vision
of the New Light was literal and probably influenced by science
fiction books he liked to read. His lyric message for the song New
Rising Sun conforms to a `multiple sun Utopia' theme found in Arthur
C. Clarke's novels. In a 1951 story, The Sands Of Mars, Clarke
envisioned the detonation of a Martian moon into a miniature sun
capable of warming that planet and making it hospitable for human
life. `Project Dawn' climaxed when:
...the eastern sky was aglow with the
first light of the rising sun... spilling over the horizon now the
first rays were touching the hills.
Similarly, when Hendrix recorded Land Of
the New Rising Sun in July 1970, he sang about a planet that becomes a
star:
`We're gonna go across the Jupiter Sun,
and see all you people one by one...'
A dozen years after Jimi wrote this,
Arthur Clarke borrowed the `Project Dawn' concept of an igniting moon
and altered it to become the`Jupiter Sun' climax for th film 2010,
Oddyssey 2. Jimi had anticipated this Jupiter vision from a concept
inspired by Clarke's 1951 novel.Both of them advance the idea the
sometime around the turn of the century the gaseous planet Jupiter
ignites into a second Sun for our solar system, thus making Mars
inhabitable and ensuring inexhaustible resources.
`The Sun is going to give you anything
and everything you want.'- Jimi
`The Land Of The New Rising Sun' is
Jimi's Utopian metaphor for a future world drenched in the energy of
multiple-Sun plenty: civilization without want, people without need.
`The solar system is going through a change soon', he predicted in
1969, `and it's going to affect the Earth in about thirty years. The
Earth is going through a physical change soon, the world's gonna go
like topsy-turvy and since the people are part of the Earth, they are
going to feel it too. Human's forget that they're part of
Earth-matter. There's gonna be a big physical change.' In a poem Jimi
wrote in May '69 he encounters an extraterrestrial Jesus (`I realized
that he was as spaced out as me') and asks, `What you want me to do,
go back to Earth and witness the royal change of the
rubble?'
`I see visions of sleeping peaks
erupting, Releasing all hell that will Shake the earth from end to
end...Singing about the Valleys of Sunrise Rainbow clean this world's
going to be...'
: Stars
Falling From the Sky: (Meteors) (Updated 1-Nov-99)
Meteor Showers could be interpreted as Stars
Falling from the Sky: However, numbers of meteors do not seem to be on
the rise, unless one focuses on the additional debris falling back to
earth from our space flight efforts (SKYLAB, MIR, Et Cetera). Meteors
are often associated with cometary orbits, or with the orbits of
extinct comets. These meteors of cometary origin follow the orbits of
the comets that they were cast off of, and appear at predictable
peroids of the year from predictable directions.
Ancient meteor showers will show up with similar
strengths each year as the earth passes through the comet's oribt.
Meteor showers of more recent origin should show up strongly in some
years than others; strongly in years where earth's orbit interesects
that of the main body of meteorids. The main body of meteorids is
assumed to follow closly the position of the comet that was the
source. So it is to be assumed that a year with many comets could
potentially be a year with more meteors. Only one of the comets
returning in 2000 is clearly associated with a meteor shower: Encke is
associated with the Taurid shower, which peaks around 31-Oct. See the
below table for information on the periodic meteor showers. You may
also refer to Meteor Showers for 99 and 2000.
New Meteor Information: The Nov 17th/18th Leonid
meteor shower is expected to be the largest one since 1966. Comet
Linear, additionally passed near the sun on 20-Sept, and the Earth
will be passing that region of space from 4-Nov to 18-Nov, potentially
giving the Leonid meteor shower a boost by adding meteors derived from
the slow disintegration of Comet Linear.
: Periodicity of Meteor Showers
Shower Name | Quadrantid
| Best Date | 3-Jan |
Associated Comet | <unknown> | Period of Comet (Years)
| 7 | Hourly Rate | 40 |
Likely Strong Year | <unk>
Shower Name | Lyrid
| Best Date | 21-Apr 1861
| Associated Comet
| I
| Period of Comet
(Years) | 415 |
Hourly Rate | 15 |
Likely Strong Year | 2276
Shower Name | Eda Aquarid
| Best Date | 4-May | Associated Comet | Halley |
Period of Comet (Years) |
76 | Hourly Rate | 20 |
Likely Strong Year | 2062
Shower Name | Delta Aquarid
| Best Date | 27-Jul | Associated Comet | <unk> | Period of Comet (Years) | 3.6
| Hourly Rate
| 20 | Likely Strong Year |
<unk>
Shower Name | Perseid
| Best Date | 11-Aug 1962
| Associated Comet
| III(Swift-Tuttle) | Period of Comet (Years) | 105
| Hourly Rate
| 50
| Likely Strong Year
| 2067
Shower Name | Draconid
| Best Date | 9-Oct | Associated Comet | Giacobini-Zinner
| Period of Comet
(Years) | 6.6 |
Hourly Rate | <unk> | Likely Strong Year |
2003
Shower Name | Orionid
| Best Date | 21-Oct | Associated Comet | Halley | Period of Comet (Years)
| 76 | Hourly Rate | 25 |
Likely Strong Year | 2062
Shower Name | Taurid
| Best Date | 3-Nov | Associated Comet | Encke | Period of Comet (Years)
| 3.3
| Hourly Rate
| <unk> | Likely Strong Year |
2000
Shower Name | Andromedid
| Best Date | 14-Nov | Associated Comet | Biela | Period of Comet (Years)
| 6.6
| Hourly Rate
| <unk> | Likely Strong Year |
<unk>
Shower Name | Leonid
| Best Date | 18-Nov 1866
| Associated Comet
| I(Tempel-Tuttle) | Period of Comet (Years) | 33
| Hourly Rate
| 15
| Likely Strong Year
| 2031(1999)
Shower Name | Geminid
| Best Date | 14-Dec | Associated Comet | <unk>
| Period of Comet
(Years) | 1.6 | Hourly Rate |
50 | Likely Strong Year |
<unk>
Shower Name | Ursids
| Best Date | 22-Dec | Associated Comet | <unk>
| Period of Comet
(Years) | <unk> | Hourly Rate | 15 |
Likely Strong Year | <unk>