Perseid Meteor Shower The 11th/12th of August 2016

The Tears of Saint Lawrence
The Perseid meteor shower is also known as the ‘tears of Saint Lawrence’ since August 10 is the date of that saint’s martyrdom.
A well-known story has persisted from earliest times. As deacon in
Rome, St Lawrence was charged with the responsibility for the material
goods of the Church and the distribution of alms to the poor. St Ambrose of Milan relates that when St Lawrence was asked for the treasures of the Church he brought forward the poor, among whom he had
divided the treasure as alms. The Prefect was so angry that he had a
great gridiron prepared,
with coals beneath it, and
had Lawrence's body
placed on it. After the martyr had suffered the pain
for a long time, the legend
concludes, he made his
famous remark, "I'm well
done. Turn me over!" From
this derives his patronage
of cooks and chefs.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_(constellation)
http://cometography.com/pcomets/109p.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_664lrmyGE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Rome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu8H4wQ3eLY
Genevieve McKee
St Catherine's College
Armagh
9th August 2016
This brochure was produced with the assistance of funding from the European Community's Horizon
2020 Programme under grant agreement No. 638653.
Perseid Meteor Shower
The 11th/12th of August 2016
The Perseid Meteor Shower
Comet Swift–Tuttle continued
The Perseids this year will peak on the 11th – 12th of August and astronomers predict that there will be up to twice as many meteors than usual.
Giovanni Schiaparelli realized in 1865 that
the comet Swift-Tuttle was the source of
the Perseids.
Under perfect conditions you may see up to 200 meteors per hour.
The Perseids this year are active between 17th of July and the 24th of August.
The Earth will collide with
more material than usual
from Comet Swift-Tuttle,
which is the source of the
Perseids. Jupiter's gravity
has tugged the debris stream
in such a way that dense
trails of dust released hundreds of years ago will move
closer to Earth on the night
of the 11th/12th August.
Comet Swift-Tuttle
Comet Swift-Tuttle, whose debris creates the Perseids, is the largest object
known to make repeated passes near Earth. Its nucleus is about 16 miles
across, rather larger and ten times the mass of the object that wiped out
the dinosaurs.
Comet Swift-Tuttle was last seen in
1992, an unspectacular pass through
the inner solar system that required
binoculars to enjoy.
The comet Swift-Tuttle was discovered
by American astronomers Lewis Swift
and Horace Tuttle in 1862.
Comet Swift-Tuttle completes an orbit
around the Sun roughly every 133 years.
The last time it returned was the 11th of
December 1992 and the next time we will
see it is predicted to be in 2126.
The Constellation Perseus
The Perseids get their name from
the constellation Perseus as they are
seen flying from its general direction. Perseus was the Greek mythological hero who killed Medusa.
Earliest information on the Perseid
meteor shower dates back to Chinese records, when it was mentioned in A.D. 36.
The first observation of the comet was in 69 B.C
In 1835, Adolphe Quetelet identified the shower
as emanating from the constellation Perseus .
The constellation of Perseus may be derived
from the Babylonian Old Man constellation.