An
unexpected meteor shower popped up during the annual Perseids shower Aug.
11-13, 2007. Among the fast-moving Perseids were several slow-moving meteors
from a shower called the "Kappa Cygnids," radiating from a point
between the bright stars of Vega and Deneb. Some meteors were as bright as the
first quarter moon and flashed in multiple colors.
Koen
Miskotte, a leading amateur astronomer of the Dutch Meteor Society, first
alerted us to the shower. Many Kappa Cygnids exhibited irregular light curves and end flares. Spanish
astronomers Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez of the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC)
and José M. Madiedo of the University of Huelva reported that the bright
meteors had been recorded on all-sky cameras of the Spanish Meteor Network
(SPMN) and activity of the Kappa Cygnids
appeared to peak around Aug. 13 00h UTC, during the peak of the Perseids, but
lasted for several days.
At the
time, a group of 12 researchers were deployed over California and the Pacific Ocean in a Gulfstream GV jet to prepare for an observing campaign for the rare Aurigid
meteor shower two weeks later, on Sept. 1, 2007. Sure enough, while watching
the video tapes that were recorded during this test flight, numerous slow Kappa
Cygnid meteors were discovered.
Amazingly,
for just trying, we already got something out of this practice campaign. The
Kappa Cygnids had last erupted in 1993, and perhaps also in 1999, and the 2007
return was completely unexpected. The new observations of the Kappa Cygnids may
shed light on the origin of this shower.
Unlike the
Aurigids, the Kappa Cygnids do not have a known parent body, and no predictions
can be made yet to forecast the next return. They move in short, 6 to 12-year
orbits and are much younger than the 2,000-year-old Aurigids.
August
28 Lunar Eclipse
Last night,
August 28, there was a lunar eclipse
here in California. Predictions were widely circulated when the Moon would move
into the shadow of Earth. Sure enough, I watched, delighted to see the last
sliver of unobstructed sunlight disappear when the Moon, exactly on time, moved
completely into the shadow. I spent the night taking pictures of the fading
Moon, watching the sky become even darker.
Will meteor
showers become as predictable as lunar eclipses in the future? Early
astronomers in the ancient Orient and China predicted lunar eclipses after
noticing periodic patterns in their return. Precise predictions became possible
centuries ago once Newton formulated the law of gravity. The application of Newton's law to predicting meteor showers is something we have been able to do well only
very recently. In the past ten years we have had some success in predicting the
return of unusual showers by calculating how the planets hustle the dust trails
in and out of Earth's path.
So far, the
Aurigid shower on September 1 is our most ambitious prediction. The meteors
date from 2000 years ago, four times farther back in time than the previous
record holder, the year 2000 Ursid outburst, which dated from the time of
Columbus.
Will the
Aurigid shower return as predicted between 4 and 5 PDT in the early Saturday
morning of September 1? Will it be visible from western parts of the USA and Mexico? Again, we're flying to observe based upon our predictions. Only by making these
observations can we improve our methods, and make forecasting meteor showers as
reliable as predicting eclipses.
Please join
us in making observations. We invite that the general public to submit digital
images and camcorder pictures of the Aurigid meteors.
More
information: http://aurigid.seti.org
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