[meteorite-list] Meteor Shower Origin Traced To 1490 Event

From: Jerry <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:39:27 -0500
Message-ID: <AF85F6BC349046A085E9D87884E97440_at_Notebook>

HUMMMMMM.
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:19 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteor Shower Origin Traced To 1490 Event


>
> http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13152-meteors-mysterious-origin-traced-to-1490-event.html
>
> Meteors' mysterious origin traced to 1490 event
> Stephen Battersby
> New Scientist
> 07 January 2008
>
> Last week's Quadrantid meteor shower was probably debris from a
> deep-space explosion that went off in the late 15th century, new
> observations reveal.
>
> The meteors, which return every January, were observed more closely than
> ever before when a group of 14 astronomers tracked them for nine hours
> on a flight from California, US, to the North Pole.
>
> They found that the shower peaked at around 0200 GMT on Friday, matching
> a prediction made by Peter Jenniskens of NASA.
>
> He based his prediction on the theory that the shower originated in
> 1490, when observers in China, Japan and Korea saw a comet following a
> path similar to that of the Quadrantids. Apparently a sudden event
> caused the dormant comet to flare up - like Comet Holmes
> in October 2007 - leaving behind a stream of debris.
>
> Jenniskens calculated that such a young stream should be narrow, and
> thus easily deflected by Jupiter's gravity. That would make it arrive a
> few hours earlier than if it were an older, more diffuse stream.
>
> Friday's observations confirm the story. A closer analysis of the new
> data might also give astronomers some clues about what caused the
> outburst.
>
> The 1490 event left behind at least one larger remnant, a near-Earth
> asteroid called 2003 EH1.
>
>
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Received on Thu 17 Jan 2008 08:39:27 PM PST