Latest 8P/Tuttle Stories
The University of Texas McDonald Observatory The best viewing for this year's Leonid meteor shower will be several hours before dawn on November 17, according to the editors of StarDate magazine. The Moon will be below the horizon, so its light will not wash out any meteors. With clear skies, viewers can expect to see about 15 to 20 meteors per hour, though the shower has proved highly variable in recent years. Though the meteors will appear to originate from the constellation Leo,...
[ Watch the Video: ScienceCasts: 2012 Perseid Meteor Shower ] April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Every year in August, the Perseid Meteor shower is visible to the naked eye and is a favorite for professional and amateur astronomers alike. The Perseid shower has it all. It offers a consistently high rate of meteors, it produces more bright, visible meteors than any other shower, it happens in August when many people are on vacation, and it happens at a time when...
The Perseid meteor shower is peaking around August 12 through the 13th, but this year it will have to pierce through the sky against a full Moon.The Perseid meteor shower has been observed for about 2000 years and is associated with the comet Switf-Tuttle.The shower is visible from mid-July each year, with the peak in activity being between August 9 and 14, depending on the particular location of the stream. The rate of meteors reaches 60 or more per hour during the peak hours, and they can...
Perseid Meteor Shower: Afternoon Chat, Then Up All Night!Looking for a little excitement as the summer draws to a close? This year's Perseid meteor shower peaks on Aug. 12-13, and it promises to be one of the best displays of the year. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a peak display of at least 80 meteors per hour. A waxing crescent moon will set before the shower becomes active, setting a perfect stage for meteor watching -- weather permitting, of course!On Thursday,...
You know them as "shooting stars," or meteors. Space scientists know them as the fiery end of tiny visitors from space. Those momentary streaks of light across the night sky are nothing more than small to almost-microscopic pieces of space debris whose trip through the void has ended in a kamikaze run into Earth's atmosphere. Of course, with 100 tons of space rock and rubble bombarding the planet each and every day, you'd think you could stick your head out the window any night of...
LUBBOCK, Texas, Oct. 30, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- An incredible adventure is underfoot as one mishap after another takes an unfortunate pilot on an inter-galactic adventure and transports him across time, space and evolution. In this cosmic novel, John Tuttle chronicles the drama of the struggle to preserve the soul. Foxhead begins in the year 2290, when Danny Rusk, a space pilot, journeys toward the planet Key to dispose of a load of Top Secret Radiation. His flight is interrupted when a...
As we kick off the year 2008, Comet Tuttle is putting on a nice show for backyard skywatchers. It had not been seen since 1994, but you'll have an excellent opportunity to pick it up with binoculars or small telescopes during the next two weeks. Tuttle can even be glimpsed by sharp-eyed observers under pristine skies without any optical aids, for it is one of the brightest of the short-period comets, those that orbit the sun often enough to be seen again and again from Earth and...
Got a calendar? Circle this date: Sunday, August 12th. Next to the circle write "all night" and "Meteors!" Attach the above to your refrigerator in plain view so you won't miss the 2007 Perseid meteor shower."It's going to be a great show," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "The Moon is new on August 12th--which means no moonlight, dark skies and plenty of meteors." How many? Cooke estimates one...
Latest 8P/Tuttle Reference Libraries
Perseids Meteor Shower -- Like most meteor showers, the Perseids are caused by comet debris. As comets enter the inner solar system, they are warmed by the sun and peppered by the solar wind, which produces the familar tails that stretch across the night sky when a bright comet is close to Earth. Comet tails are made of tiny pieces of ice, dust, and rock which are spewed into interplanetary space as they bubble off the comet's nucleus. When Earth encounters these particles on its...
Leonids Meteor Shower -- The Leonids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The meteor stream is viewable every year around November 17 and is thought to be comprised of particles ejected by the comet as it passes by the Sun. When the Earth moves through the meteor stream, the meteor shower is visible. The Leonids get their name from usually making their appearance in or near the constellation Leo. The Leonids are famous because their meteor showers,...
Comet Tempel-Tuttle -- Comet Tempel-Tuttle is an inherently faint and typically unspectacular comet that has only been observed on a few apparitions over the past 600 years. Its most recent apparition was in 1998, when it reached perihelion on February 28. As expected, it showed little activity, and only a small tail. However, further inspection shows that this comet is more interesting than the first glance suggests. Its orbit is oriented in such a way that the comet makes a...
