meteor showers tagged posts

Researchers report that they can detect showers from the debris in the path of comets that pass close to Earth orbit and return as infrequently as once every 4,000 years.

Comets that circle the Sun in very elongated orbits spread their debris so thin along their orbit or eject it out of the solar system altogether that their meteor showers are hard to detect. From a new meteor shower survey published in the journal Icarus, researchers now report that they can detect showers from the debris in the path of comets that pass close to Earth orbit and are known to return as infrequent as once every 4,000 years.

“This creates a situational ...

On the 9th the moon has traveled through one quarter of its 29-day orbit around Earth, and we see the first quarter phase.

The new moon phase started October 1. Of course, the new moon isn’t visible, because it’s between Earth and the sun, and the unlit side is facing Earth. Night by night the slender crescent gets bigger and higher in the sky and easier to see just after sunset. On the 3rd and 4th, the moon will pass just above Venus!

On the 22nd of October, the last quarter moon rises at midnight. Later, the pretty and bright Beehive Cluster will be visible near the moon until dawn.

The 8th is Fall Astronomy Day, celebrated internationally by astronomy clubs since 1973...