Best Meteor Shower of the Year Peaks This Weekend

August 7, 2023

The NASA All Sky Fireball Network is already detecting the first meteors of this year’s Perseid meteor shower! The meteor shower peaks on the night of August 12 as the Earth passes through the dustiest debris of comet Swift-Tuttle’s trails.

The Perseid meteor shower is often considered to be the best meteor shower of the year due to its high rates and pleasant late-summer temperatures. Unlike last year’s shower coinciding with the full moon, this year’s moon will be a waning crescent, allowing even some of the fainter meteors to be seen.

So, how many can you see?

“People in the U.S. can reasonably expect to see around 40 Perseids in the hour just before dawn on the peak nights. That’s about one every couple of minutes, which is not bad,” said Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “However, we are assuming you are out in the country, well away from cities and suburbs.”

The brighter skies of suburban areas greatly reduce the rates, with 10 or fewer expected in an hour.

You can see the Perseid meteor shower best in the Northern Hemisphere. All you need to catch the show is a clear sky, darkness, and a bit of patience. You don’t need to look in any particular direction; meteors can generally be seen all over the sky.

The Perseids appear to radiate from a point in the constellation Perseus, and each meteor has a similar orbit. Meteor showers take their name from the location of their point of origin, or what is known as the radiant.

Fun fact:

The Perseid meteor shower is the only meteor shower to delay a Space Shuttle launch. In 1993, the NASA – STS-51 launch was delayed due to concerns about the Perseid meteor shower activity being forecast to be extremely heavy, increasing the chance that a spacecraft in Earth orbit could be damaged by a piece of the debris.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/2023/08/07/best-meteor-shower-of-the-year-peaks-this-weekend/

India's Chandrayaan-3 moon rover enters lunar orbit, snaps stunning photos

Aug 7, 2023

India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander has returned its first images from the moon after entering orbit around our nearest neighbor.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the images on Sunday (Aug. 6), showing that the spacecraft had reached its destination ahead of a lunar landing attempt expected on Aug. 23.

Chandrayaan-3 launched on July 14, heading into an initial highly elliptical Earth orbit. It then gradually raised its orbit before making a burn on July 31 that set it on course for the moon. The spacecraft successfully entered orbit around our natural satellite on Saturday (Aug. 5), according to ISRO.

The spacecraft will conduct further engine burns to bring it into a circular track about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface of the moon a week ahead of the expected landing attempt.

The newly released images, which ISRO stitched into a 45-second video, show the solar arrays of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft in the foreground. The moon, with features including large impact craters and lunar mare, or seas, is in the background.

The spacecraft will conduct further engine burns to bring it into a circular track about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface of the moon a week ahead of the expected landing attempt.

The newly released images, which ISRO stitched into a 45-second video, show the solar arrays of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft in the foreground. The moon, with features including large impact craters and lunar mare, or seas, is in the background.

The 6-billion-rupee (roughly $73 million) Chandrayaan-3 mission aims to make a precise landing in the vicinity of the moon's south pole. If it's successful, India will join the United States, the former Soviet Union and China as the only nations to perform a soft lunar landing.

The mission's lander, known as Vikram, also carries a small rover called Pragyan. The pair will spend the best part of a lunar day (about 14 Earth days) conducting surface operations and experiments before succumbing to the deep cold of the lunar nighttime.

https://www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-3-moon-orbit-photos

https://twitter.com/chandrayaan_3/status/1688215948531015681

>>19317184

>>19317199

From dailymail

Also, a couple hits on Twitter from last month but can't access the posts. Maybe BS.

The marketing executive was deemed a 'rising star' in 2017, when she served as Vice President of Client Services at Elevate Brand Marketing.

She is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and lives in a $2 million home in Lakewood neighborhood, according to public records.

Gomes is the founder of a marketing firm in Dallas, Uppercut Marketing

DailyMail.com has reached out to Elevate Marketing and Uppercut Marketing for comment.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12381895/Tiffany-Gomas-revealed-American-Airlines-passenger-mysterious-not-real-viral-tirade.html

https://media.ppai.org/ppai-magazine/2017-rising-stars-the-20-most-watchable-young-leaders/