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back to article It's space WAR: Comet launches fireballs at space-invading EARTH

Early-bird skywatchers in the US are in for a treat this week: the annual Leonid meteor shower starts just after midnight and will peak just before dawn on Tuesday. leonids If you wish upon a star... "We're predicting 10 to 15 meteors per hour," said Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space …

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  1. Camilla Smythe

    Meh..

    The local council switches off the local street lights so the robbers can rob stuff but we can gaze better into the dark but the weather man taketh it away with his clouds and fog and shit.

    No doubt in the cold light of tomorrow, when the sun wakes up.. but not for Phil, I shall put a foot out of the bed and be welcomed to the intense cold of a clear sky.. or fog.

    Perhaps I should press 9 next time someone autodials me and suggests .gov is going to pay for my solar panels.

    Is Jonathan Livingstone Perseid still about?

    Don't bother waking me up. I have a cat for that one.

    0 5 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meh..

      The local council switches off the local street lights so the robbers can rob stuff

      Don't spout utter rubbish, in all areas where streetlights have been turned off at night the police & government figures all show that criminal activity goes down.

      In fact various criminals, convicted of various offences are on record many times over saying they like having the night lit up so well, as it makes it easier for them to commit their crimes in as short a time possible, making they hope that escape is possible.

      Saying criminals enjoy the dark is therefore stupid & has led to the current blight of light pollution everywhere as humanity decides that it knows better than nature & turns dark into light. You know it took nature & the process of evolution several billion years to decide that life requires a diurnal cycle, dont be arrogant and assume you know better! If you are stupid enough to think you know better I suggest you look into the latest medical research, showing that constant lighting is in fact damaging human health quite a bit, not to mention other parts of nature too

      7 0 Reply
      1. JonP
        Reply Icon

        Re: Meh..

        to decide that life requires a diurnal cycle

        Decide, requires? I think you'll find there wasn't much choice in the matter.

        4 0 Reply
        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
          Reply Icon
          Boffin

          Re: Meh..

          "Decide, requires? I think you'll find there wasn't much choice in the matter."

          All the first self-replicating "life" got together and held a referendum on whether the planet should rotate or not. The rotaters won by a narrow margin againsts the statics although every now and then the statics flip the magnetic poles to try and stop the rotation. They lost out in the short term but are slowly gaining ground hence the need to adjust our clocks every few years and/or add leap seconds.

          The debate continues.

          5 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
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        Trollface

        Re: Meh..

        Burgulars like the light and muggers the dark (at least to lurk in deep shadow) or so I've been told - switch off your bed side lamp for good health?

        0 0 Reply
  2. frank ly

    Information please

    Does the cometary debris stream get noticably replenished every 33 years, leading to spectacular displays? If so, when is the next replenishment due?

    0 0 Reply
    1. Vulch
      Reply Icon

      Re: Information please

      Not for a while, best displays seem to be a year or two after perihelion and at the moment the comet is around aphelion. Last perihelion was 1998 so watch the skies 2031-2034ish...

      0 0 Reply
    2. Tom 7
      Reply Icon

      Re: Information please

      Imagine a stream of debris - a bit like a mexican sombrero hat in distribution. Most of the time the earth passes through the rim and we get a display. Every 33 years we hit the bit that you stick your head in and we get a better display.

      In 1833 we crossed near the very middle of the hat and got 100,000 meteors an hour - I would say lucky bastards but a lot of people topped themselves thinking it was the end of the world!

      1 0 Reply
      1. Fibbles
        Reply Icon

        Re: Information please

        I would say lucky bastards but a lot of people topped themselves thinking it was the end of the world!

        The end of days finally arrives; the good are to be whisked off by angels whilst everyone else burns. So what do the most fervent religious types do? Commit a mortal sin.

        /slowclap

        7 0 Reply
        1. Wzrd1 Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Information please

          "The end of days finally arrives; the good are to be whisked off by angels whilst everyone else burns. So what do the most fervent religious types do? Commit a mortal sin."

          Thereby removing the urine from the gene pool.

          2 0 Reply
  3. Red Bren
    Coat

    The Leonid shower in full swing here

    What do you mean, I'm supposed to see meteors? Through these rainclouds?

    2 0 Reply
    1. Mark 85
      Reply Icon

      Re: The Leonid shower in full swing here

      You'd better check. They may not be rain as I understand the comet had to have a potty stop somewhere.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Red Bren
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        Re: The Leonid shower in full swing here

        So you're proposing a twist on the hypothesis that the oceans were seeded by comets?

        1 0 Reply
    2. Wzrd1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: The Leonid shower in full swing here

      Well, it's cleared out where I am, but windy and below freezing.

      Cold enough to say, screw that comet and its trail of rubbish.

      0 0 Reply
  4. Captain DaFt

    I knew this was coming!

    Today the skies have rapidly clouded up solid.

    The first sign that a celestial event of note is available... to somebody else!

    1 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Catch 'em if you can

    I witnessed a big Leonids shower about a decade ago. It was the most awesome (in the true sense of the word) event I have ever seen.

    Friends and I drove out to the desert near Mount Isa, QLD, and watched from midnight till dawn. We laid on the roof and bonnet of the car and just stared upwards. Not only could we see the rocks exploding in the sky but we also heard them. I wasn't expecting that at all. Trails of dust from each one hung around for ages after. At the peak there was roughly one per minute.

    It really is something worth losing sleep over.

    1 0 Reply
  6. choleric

    Dress code

    Yeah, but if one of those meteors is wearing the wrong kind of T-shirt the press will be all over it for bad reasons.

    2 1 Reply
    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Dress code

      Not the press, not feminists, the feminazis will be shrieking until the press arrives just to shut them up.

      1 1 Reply
  7. bearded bearcan

    Did you not get the memo?

    ALL THESE WORLDS

    ARE YOURS EXCEPT

    Comet 67/P

    ATTEMPT NO

    LANDING THERE

    USE THEM TOGETHER

    USE THEM IN PEACE

    7 2 Reply
    1. Wzrd1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Did you not get the memo?

      I'll take mine in pieces, delivered to Mars.

      0 0 Reply
  8. asphytxtc

    Well, despite the best efforts of the Bedford night sky, I managed to spy a whole three meteors just before 1am this morning! Probably the first time I haven't grumbled when the Mrs has asked me to go outside and look for the blasted cat...

    0 0 Reply
    1. Rich 11
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      Your cat can levitate?

      4 0 Reply
      1. TRT Silver badge
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        Yes. Yes it can. It also shits rainbows.

        4 0 Reply
        1. asphytxtc
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          Pint

          Seriously, it's like watching Nyan cat on repeat in my household :-/

          Never did find the cat, I did happen come across the barrel of homebrew in the shed however.. that made skywatching a lot more enjoyable!

          1 0 Reply
  9. Steve the Cynic

    Pedantry strikes again...

    Article: "while Earth-grazers come into our atmosphere at fast, low angles that leave them streaming long tails as they burn up."

    Earth-grazers don't burn up. They burn (whence the trails), but they leave the atmosphere before they have time to burn up completely.

    0 0 Reply

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