Quadrantid meteor shower

[Conrad]

http://spaceweather.com/

Earth is about to pass through a stream of debris from 2003 EH1, a comet fragment that produces the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak around 07:20 UT (02:20 am EST) on Wednesday morning, January 4th. At maximum, as many as 100 meteors/hour could emerge from a radiant near Polaris, the north star.

[VirginiaJim]

Why can't these meteor thingies happen while I'm awake during the day?   Conrad, you need to talk to someone about this..

[Conrad]

You know Jim, I had actually put in a request to have the shower during the day because I know how you are.

I was asked to take a number...




I wonder how long it'll take to get to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001?

[VirginiaJim]

    Quite a bit, methinks.

[Rhino]

Ok so we can't see them in the middle of the day but why couldn't it peak at 11pm? It always seems to be at 3am.

[Conrad]

Those questions are above my pay grade, sorry.

[Rhino]

So I wonder if it actually does have to peak in the wee hours of the morning. Could it be that as the earth moves around the sun and passes through the field it is presented on the side moving toward sun up? We know that looking down from the north pole the earth rotates counter clock wise. I believe it also rotate around the sun counter clock wise from the north perspective. Therefor if it is passing through a relatively static dust field you would only see them after midnight and would peak just before sunup. Just a guess on my part.

[Conrad]

So I wonder if it actually does have to peak in the wee hours of the morning. Could it be that as the earth moves around the sun and passes through the field it is presented on the side moving toward sun up? We know that looking down from the north pole the earth rotates counter clock wise. I believe it also rotate around the sun counter clock wise from the north perspective. Therefor if it is passing through a relatively static dust field you would only see them after midnight and would peak just before sunup. Just a guess on my part.

That sounds reasonable, it made my head hurt a bit though. I'm fighting off a cold or something and feeling like crap at the moment.

[VirginiaJim]

Have some Scotch.  My grandkids think it's medicine.  That's what I tell them, anyway.

[Conrad]

Have some Scotch.  My grandkids think it's medicine.  That's what I tell them, anyway.

That's a good idea, if only I had some here at work. All I brought with me was beer.

[VirginiaJim]

Silly boy, beer takes up too much space and liquor is quicker.