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According to the going theory, a six-mile-wide asteroid slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years ago, throwing enough dust up into the atmosphere to dim the sun for years, killing off green plants and triggering a famine that wiped out all the dinosaurs in the geologic blink of an eye. Not so fast, says U.S. Geological Survey geologist emeritus James Fassett. A few years ago, Fassett’s colleagues were digging in a fossil-rich area of New Mexico when they uncovered the four-foot-long fossilized thighbone of a duck-billed, plant-eating hadrosaur in a sandstone cliff. When Fassett dated the bone to half...

For FReepers in the western US (& Hawaii), I have a heads-up for - potentially - a really nice meteor display early this coming Saturday morning. Points east will not be able to see the peak of the display because - at 4:36 AM PDT - twilight or daytime will already have occurred. The best show will be looking to the northeast. There will be a 3/4 full waning moon high in the sky, so if the observer can shield oneself from the moon behind an obstacle (phone pole, house, car, tree, etc.) the viewing will be improved. I was...

The meteors that are about to rain down in the early morning of September 1 date from around 4 A.D., the latest calculations show. It is not often that we can tell when a shooting star was first released from a comet into space, to travel as a meteoroid in an orbit around the Sun, and finally collide with Earth's atmosphere to shine as a meteor for our enjoyment. Most meteors that sporadically flash across the sky on a dark moonless night date from anonymous times. Only in recent years have we learned to trace young meteor showers, just a...

Lyrid meteors to grace the weekend sky 07:11 20 April 2007 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga A meteor streaks across the sky against a background of star trails in this long-exposure image taken in 1985 during the Geminid shower (Image: Jimmy Westlake) The Lyrid meteors will appear to radiate from the constellation Lyra, which includes Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky (Illustration: NASA) The oldest known meteor shower is expected to return for its regularly scheduled performance this weekend. Although it is outshone by the December Geminids and the August Perseids, the Lyrids may provide the best...

'Flaming debris' nearly hits jet The pilots of a Chilean passenger jet reported seeing flaming debris fall past their aircraft as it approached the airport at Auckland, New Zealand. Lan airline said the captain "made visual contact with incandescent fragments several kilometres away". New Zealand and Australian media suggested the debris was from a Russian satellite expected to enter the atmosphere later in the day. But the US space agency Nasa said it was more likely to have been meteors. '40 second margin' The Lan Airbus A340 had just entered New Zealand airspace as it approached Auckland's airport when the...

The annual Leonid meteor shower could produce a strong outburst this weekend for residents of the North America and Western Europe. A brief surge of activity is expected begin around 11:45 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 18. In Europe, that corresponds to early Sunday morning, Nov. 19 at 4:45 GMT. The outburst could last up to two hours. At the peak, people in these favorable locations could see up to 150 shooting stars per hour, or more than two per minute. "We expect an outburst of more than 100 Leonids per hour," said Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment...

Orionid meteors to peak this weekend 15:24 20 October 2006 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga One of the year's best displays of meteors will occur this weekend. Called the Orionids, the meteors are bits of rocky debris shed from Halley's Comet that burn up in Earth's atmosphere. The display will be visible for both northern and southern hemisphere observers and should produce 20 meteors per hour at its peak. Friday night and Saturday night should be best, especially very early in the morning. Meteors in the Orionid family can appear anywhere in the sky, but their paths trace back to...

In August of A.D. 258, the emperor Valerian ordered that all deacons, priests, and Bishops be put to death. Tradition via the Golden Legend tells us that Pope Sixtus II met with Lawrence, saying to him: "I shall not leave thee, my son, but greater strifes and battles be due to thee for the faith of Jesu Christ. We, as old men, have taken more lighter battle, and to thee as to a young man shall remain a more glorious battle of which thou shalt triumph and have victory of the tyrant, and shalt follow me within three days...

Every August, when many people go vacationing in the country where skies are dark, the best-known meteor shower makes its appearance -- the Perseids. In 2005, the Perseids are expected to reach their maximum on August 12. Peak activity is unfortunately predicted for the daylight hours across North America. Sky watchers are thus encouraged to watch during the predawn hours of Friday, August 12 and again during the early morning hours of Saturday.

NASA -- Got a calendar? Circle this date: Friday, August 12th. Next to the circle write "before sunrise" and "Meteors!" Attach all of the above to your refrigerator in plain view so you won't miss the 2005 Perseid meteor shower. The Perseids come every year, beginning in late July and stretching into August. Sky watchers outdoors at the right time can see colorful fireballs, occasional outbursts and, almost always, long hours of gracefully streaking meteors. Among the many nights of the shower, there is always one night that is best. This year: August 12th. Really, it could hardly be better....

Just a heads-up's to FR geeks. The meteors have already started, but it looks as if this could be a real event.

A meteor shower that had some startled motorists calling police is expected to continue over the next few days. Saturday night's light show was part of the Geminids meteor shower, News4 reported. Montgomery and Fairfax county police, along with Dulles Airport and the space agency, NASA, received calls about the spectacle.

If you were disappointed with the meager showing put on by this year's Leonid meteor shower, don't fret. What could be the best meteor display of the year is scheduled to reach its peak on Monday night, Dec. 13. Skywatchers with dark skies away from city lights could see one or two meteors every minute during the Geminid meteor shower. The greatest activity is expected to be visible from North America, Europe and Africa. The Geminids get their name from the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. On the night of this shower's maximum, the meteors will appear to emanate from...

Microscopic analysis, reported in the current issue of the journal Geology, revealed a 3-inch-thick layer of "shocked quartz" — a form of the mineral produced only under intense pressure like that of an impact — that dated to 35.5 million years ago, when a space rock slammed into the Earth about 120 miles southeast of present-day Washington.

IF IT had hit Central London, Britain would no longer have a capital city. The force of the meteorite that hit eastern Siberia last September destroyed 40 square miles of forest and caused earth tremors felt 60 miles away. An expedition from Russia's Kosmopoisk institute has only recently reached the site in a remote area north of Lake Baikal because of bad weather and difficult terrain, the Interfax news agency said yesterday. Fragments of the meteorite had apparently exploded into shrapnel 18 miles above the Earth with the force of at least 200 tonnes of TNT. At the time, Russian...

Aug. 11: The Perseid meteor shower should be at its peak late tonight. The best time to watch is from about 11 p.m. until the first light of dawn Thursday morning. Try to find yourself a dark spot with an open view of the sky. You may see a brief Perseid "shooting star" as often as once every minute or two. The shower is somewhat active for many nights before and after its date of maximum. This year could be especially interesting for the Perseids. Aug. 12: During dawn (perhaps after a night of Perseid watching!), look for the waning...

Probe to 'look inside' asteroids By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff in Paris, France Studies of asteroids would aid Earth-protection strategies A new space mission concept unveiled at a Paris conference aims to look inside asteroids to reveal how they are made. Deep Interior would use radar to probe the origin and evolution of two near-Earth objects less than 1km across. The mission, which could launch some time later this decade, would also give clues to how the planets evolved. The perceived threat of asteroids colliding with our planet has renewed interest in space missions to understand these...

Picture credit: TheCabal"I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat"LINK TO THREAD TEN Iran seeks swap of Brits for suicide attackers Report says 40 Revolutionary Guard 'volunteers' held by UK Iran apprehended British military personnel and Navy vessels earlier this week in order to secure release of 40 "suicide operations volunteers" held by the UK, according to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard source. The source told the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the British Army command in Iraq received the demand from the Revolutionary Guard, reported the Middle East Media Research Institute. According to the source,...

GREETINGS, FOLLOWING is a note re todays Alaskan quake. First a comment about this thread. SOME FREEPERS are fascinated with fringe areas of reality. Some of us even think the fringe areas of knowledge, research, anecdotal stories and the like will have very impactful effects on the WAR ON TERROR, WWIII, Biblical end time events etc. WE ALSO FIND FREEPERS FULL OF GREAT CREATIVITY OF THOUGHT, INSIGHT, WORK RELATED EXPERIENCES AND SKILLS ETC. useful in collecting diverse puzzle pieces and in analyzing them. This diversity is priceless and virtually unavailable on any other site. While we are seriously interested in...

Meteor enthusiasts will likely be out in force in the coming nights, hoping to catch a glimpse of an on-again, off-again meteor display. Special emphasis will be placed on two specific nights: June 22-23 and June 26-27. Ironically, the month of June is usually not noteworthy for any major meteor showers. Yet six years ago, during the final weekend of June 1998, sky watchers worldwide were caught off guard by an unexpected shower of bright meteors and fireballs. From Japan, for instance, came reports of meteors that were visible even through heavily overcast skies. Reports from visual observers in other...

Meteor clue to end of Middle East civilisations By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent (Filed: 04/11/2001) SCIENTISTS have found the first evidence that a devastating meteor impact in the Middle East might have triggered the mysterious collapse of civilisations more than 4,000 years ago. satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide impact crater caused by a meteor Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide circular depression which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with the violence equivalent...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 27 Leonids and Leica Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado and Isabel Graboleda Explanation: This lovely view from northern Spain, at Cape Creus on the easternmost point of the Iberian peninsula, looks out across the Mediteranean and up into the stream of the 2002 Leonid meteor shower. The picture is a composite of thirty separate one minute exposures taken through a fisheye lens near the Leonids' first...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 20 Leonids vs. The Moon Credit & Copyright: Frank Sapp Explanation: Beautiful and bright, the 2002 Leonid meteors battled against glaring moonlight. This winning example, from Tuesday morning skies above Laughlin, Nevada, USA, finds an undaunted Leonid streaking between the familiar constellation of Orion (left) and an overexposed full Moon. As anticipated, the Leonid shower packed a double punch on November 19 with planet Earth plunging...

NASA TV kicks off live coverage of the 2002 Leonid meteor storm on Monday, Nov. 18th. Nov. 16, 2002: The best place to watch the 2002 Leonid meteor storm is outside under the stars. But NASA TV isn't bad either. On Monday, Nov. 18th at 11:00 p.m. CST (Tuesday, Nov. 19th at 0500 UT), NASA TV will kick off the 2nd-annual Leonids TV Show. "There are going to be two meteor outbursts on Tuesday morning--one over Europe and a second over North America," says Mitzi Adams, a NASA astronomer who's organizing the show. "Our broadcast will cover both." A team...

<p>Wishing on a star? You're in luck. Monday night's Leonid meteor storm will offer one of nature's best light shows this century.</p> <p>The annual shower of shooting stars arrives with a first storm peaking around 11 p.m ET, viewable in and around New England, and a second peak coming six-and-a-half hours later, visible nationwide. Barring clouds and a bright full moon, which could wash out some of the more faint meteors, observers may see thousands of shooting stars during the storm.</p>

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 16 Rainbow Perseid Credit & Copyright: Dirk Obudzinski Explanation: While meteors do show colors, the colors aren't always seen with the unaided eye. Still, high speed color film recorded this rainbow-like trail as a meteor streaked through the early morning sky on August 13 above Sedona, Arizona, USA. Part of the annual Perseid meteor shower, this bit of dust from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle entered...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 15 Meteors and Northern Lights Credit & Copyright: Wade B. Clark Jr. Explanation: Skygazers report that the annual Perseid meteor shower went pretty much as predicted, producing a meteor every few minutes during the dark early morning hours of August 12 and 13. And as the constellation Perseus rose above the horizon on the night of August 11, astrophotographer Wade Clark was anticipating recording images of...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 13 Contemplating the Sky Credit & Copyright: Sebastien Gauthier (Astrolab du Parc du Mont-Megantic) Explanation: Have you contemplated your sky recently? Last night was a good one for midnight meditators at many northerly locations as meteors from the Perseid meteor shower frequently streaked through. The Perseid meteor shower has slowly been building to a crescendo but should continue to be rewarding tonight and into the week....

Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 13 November 2001 "...and the seven judges of hell ... raised their torches, lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight into darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup." -- An account of the Deluge from the Epic of Gilgamesh, circa 2200 B.C. If you are fortunate enough to see the storm of shooting stars predicted for the Nov. 18...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 9 Fireworks and Shooting Stars Credit & Copyright: Jim Steele Explanation: Experimenting with a new telescope and camera, photographer Jim Steele captured this surreal but festive image of fireworks in the night sky above Ashland, Oregon. The date was July 4th and the fiery streaks were part of the traditional annual celebration of independence day in the United States. Fiery streaks from another annual event will...