The best meteor shower of 2004 peaks on Dec. 13th

User rating: 3 / 5 after 1 vote(s)

Meteor Shower
by Dr. Tony Phillips

Make hot cocoa. Bundle up. Tell your friends: the best meteor shower of 2004 is about to peak on a long cold December night.
It's the Geminids. The best time to look is Monday night, Dec. 13th. Sky watchers who stay outside for a few hours around midnight can expect to see dozens to hundreds of "shooting stars."
The source of the shower is asteroid 3200 Phaethon. There's a cloud of dust trailing the asteroid and Earth plows through it every year in mid-December. Bits of dust traveling 80,000 mph hit our atmosphere and turn into glowing meteors.


Full story »
All News summaries from Space & Earth science news
All News summaries for December 10, 2004

EPA: Few volunteering to cut greenhouse gases

14 minutes ago | User rating: not rated yet
(AP) -- Voluntary pollution-reduction programs touted by the Bush administration as part of the solution to global warming have "limited potential" to reduce greenhouse gases, according to an internal government watchdog.

Trench on Mars Ready for Next Sampling by NASA Lander

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has groomed the bottom of a shallow trench to prepare for collecting a sample to be analyzed from a hard subsurface layer where the soil may contain frozen water. ...

Arctic 'holds 90bln barrels of oil, mostly offshore'

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Within the Arctic circle there are 90 billion barrels of oil and vast quantities of natural gas waiting to be tapped, most of it offshore, the government-run US Geological Survey said.

Russian scientists begin trial exploration of world's deepest lake

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Russian scientists leading a submarine expedition to probe the world's deepest lake on Thursday carried out test dives ahead of the start of the operation next week, reports said.

Scientists solve 30-year-old aurora borealis mystery

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
UCLA space scientists and colleagues have identified the mechanism that triggers substorms in space; wreaks havoc on satellites, power grids and communications systems; and leads to the explosive release of ...
Goto Archive PhysOrg Forum Goto Archive Video Goto Archive Editorials Goto Archive Free Magazines Goto Archive Newsletter

News Archive