Swift-Tuttle
An earth approaching comet
TRANSLATION
Swift-Tuttle = ein kurzperiodischer Komet, der am 16. Juli 1862 von Lewis A. Swift und am 19. Juli 1862 von Horace Parnell Tuttle unabhängig voneinander entdeckt wurde. --- GOOGLE INDEX Swift-Tuttle: approximately 215,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
From The Economist, 6th August 2016
Grab a comfortable chair and find the darkest spot you can: an unusually good show is coming. This year’s Perseid meteor shower—named for the constellation Perseus, from which the shooting stars appear to radiate—will peak on Thursday and Friday evenings. The spectacle happens every year as the Earth passes through debris (mostly sand-grain-sized stuff) left behind by Comet SWIFT-TUTTLE, a 26km-wide ball of ice and rock.
And this year, there will be an "outburst": Jupiter’s gravity has tugged more of that debris into Earth’s path. Though there should be plenty to see in the evenings before and after the peak, experts predict as many as 200 meteors an hour during it. The best views will be in the northern hemisphere down to mid-southern latitudes.
Perseus, in the northern sky, should rise at about 10pm; you’ll see meteors all over, but they will all be radiating away from it. Enjoy!
Grab a comfortable chair and find the darkest spot you can: an unusually good show is coming. This year’s Perseid meteor shower—named for the constellation Perseus, from which the shooting stars appear to radiate—will peak on Thursday and Friday evenings. The spectacle happens every year as the Earth passes through debris (mostly sand-grain-sized stuff) left behind by Comet SWIFT-TUTTLE, a 26km-wide ball of ice and rock.
And this year, there will be an "outburst": Jupiter’s gravity has tugged more of that debris into Earth’s path. Though there should be plenty to see in the evenings before and after the peak, experts predict as many as 200 meteors an hour during it. The best views will be in the northern hemisphere down to mid-southern latitudes.
Perseus, in the northern sky, should rise at about 10pm; you’ll see meteors all over, but they will all be radiating away from it. Enjoy!
Did you
know?
Swift–Tuttle comet
noun phrase
Comet Swift–Tuttle is a periodic comet with a current orbital period of 133 years. It was independently discovered by Lewis Swift on July 16, 1862 and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on July 19, 1862. It has a well determined orbit and has a comet nucleus 26 km in diameter.
---
ORIGIN
comet
1154, from O.Fr. comete, from L. cometa, from Gk. (aster) kometes, lit. "long-haired (star)," from kome "hair of the head", so called from resemblance of the comet's tail to streaming hair.
---
"The single most dangerous object known to humanity"
Chinese records indicate that, in 188, the comet reached apparent magnitude 0.1. In the discovery year of 1862, the comet was as bright as Polaris. The comet made a return appearance in 1992, when it was rediscovered by Japanese astronomer Tsuruhiko Kiuchi and became visible with binoculars. In 2126 it will be a bright naked-eye comet reaching about apparent magnitude 0.7.
A close encounter with Earth is predicted for the comet's return to the inner Solar System in the year 4479, around Sept. 15. It is the largest Solar System object that makes repeated close approaches to Earth with a relative velocity of 60 km/s.
Although extremely unlikely, an Earth impact would have an estimated energy of 27 times that of the Cretaceous–Paleogene impactor. Comet Swift–Tuttle has been described as "the single most dangerous object known to humanity".
Adapted from Wikipedia
---
SYNONYMS
comet
falling star, fireball, meteorite, meteoroid
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
say something like:
"Shall we take time out this Thursday or Friday evening to watch falling stars from SWIFT-TUTTLE?"
noun phrase
Comet Swift–Tuttle is a periodic comet with a current orbital period of 133 years. It was independently discovered by Lewis Swift on July 16, 1862 and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on July 19, 1862. It has a well determined orbit and has a comet nucleus 26 km in diameter.
---
ORIGIN
comet
1154, from O.Fr. comete, from L. cometa, from Gk. (aster) kometes, lit. "long-haired (star)," from kome "hair of the head", so called from resemblance of the comet's tail to streaming hair.
---
"The single most dangerous object known to humanity"
Chinese records indicate that, in 188, the comet reached apparent magnitude 0.1. In the discovery year of 1862, the comet was as bright as Polaris. The comet made a return appearance in 1992, when it was rediscovered by Japanese astronomer Tsuruhiko Kiuchi and became visible with binoculars. In 2126 it will be a bright naked-eye comet reaching about apparent magnitude 0.7.
A close encounter with Earth is predicted for the comet's return to the inner Solar System in the year 4479, around Sept. 15. It is the largest Solar System object that makes repeated close approaches to Earth with a relative velocity of 60 km/s.
Although extremely unlikely, an Earth impact would have an estimated energy of 27 times that of the Cretaceous–Paleogene impactor. Comet Swift–Tuttle has been described as "the single most dangerous object known to humanity".
Adapted from Wikipedia
---
SYNONYMS
comet
falling star, fireball, meteorite, meteoroid
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
say something like:
"Shall we take time out this Thursday or Friday evening to watch falling stars from SWIFT-TUTTLE?"
