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Taurid meteor shower Started by Tom Rowland at 11-07-2005 10:49 AM. Topic has 4 replies. TAS Community S... » General » Astronomy Trivi... » Taurid meteor shower

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11-07-2005, 10:49 AM Tom Rowland Joined on 09-12-2005 Posts 70 Taurid meteor shower The last several times I have been to Starhill I have noticed plenty of metors.  Jim and Gene also mentioned this, and speculated about the source.  Here is a link to spaceweather that indicates the probable source is the Taurid meteor shower which is peaking now.  There is also a cool mov file of a fireball exploding over El Paso Texas,  supposedly from the Taurid metor shower. http://spaceweather.com/index.html    Report

11-07-2005, 9:15 PM Jim Joined on 05-26-2005 Posts 51 Re: Taurid meteor shower Thanks Tom, I believe you are right.  I have seen some nice ones just walking in my neighborhood.  Thought about going down to Baum road and looking tonight, but it was fairly cloudy and I made other plans.  Jim    Report

11-10-2005, 8:03 PM MaggieC Joined on 11-11-2005 Posts 2 Re: Taurid meteor shower yesterday (november 9) at about 5:00 a.m., in upstate new york, i was standing outside having a cigarette and not really paying attention to the sky.  toward the west, traveling north to south, was a HUGE meteor - i caught it out of the corner of my eye and it was visible for several seconds afterward.  was this part of the taurid meteor shower?  i watched the sky for several moments but did not see any others.  i have never seen a meteor so big!!!  i'd love to read any comments.....    Report

11-11-2005, 10:25 AM Tom Rowland Joined on 09-12-2005 Posts 70 Re: Taurid meteor shower Hi Maggie, Just for the record a meteor is an object that burns up before it hits the earth, while a metorite is an object that actually hits the earth.  There have only been a few "huge" objects hit the earth.  One about the size of Mars hit long ago and the result was the creation of our moon.  The really big ones leave craters, some almost 200 km across. The night Jim and I were talking about we were out for almost five hours and saw maybe three or four meteors.  Sometimes in a real meteor the rates are much higher (like thousands per hour).  Here is a link to a page that indicates when the most activity is expected http://comets.amsmeteors.org/index.html As one page at this site notes a real meteor storm can produce thousands of visible meteors an hour, but the storms are usually caused by a comet passing close to the sun so part of it melts and leaves a dust trail which can be observed as metors when they enter the earths atmoshpere. Meteorites are normally much larger than dust specks or small stones, and can do real damage if they hit the earth and are very rare when compared to meteors. The odds are in favor of what you saw being part of the Taurid meteor shower, but there is always the chance of a stray dust speck causing it.  Or it could have been part of the Orionid meteor activity.  And while it may have looked big the intensity of light caused by a meteor is more related to its speed than its size. The Taurid activity was a little suprising, here is the NASA link about that http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/03nov_taurids.htm Hope this helps.    Report

11-11-2005, 12:33 PM MaggieC Joined on 11-11-2005 Posts 2 Re: Taurid meteor shower thanks for your comments.  it was a meteor and not a meteorite (i.e. it streaked across the sky while it burned up).  it was larger than any meteor i have ever seen, although i must admit that with three kids and a full time day job, along with living in a not-so-advantageous place to view (lots of trees, lots of cloudy/rainy weather, and lots of extra cold weather in the winter), it is hard for me to get out and watch for them.  i did a search to see what websites were out there where people could record sitings, and that's where i found this site, to see if anyone else had seen this particular meteor.     Report

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