http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=1233789

by Peter Jenniskens

SETI Institute scientist and meteor expert Peter Jenniskens reports in a
telegram issued by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center
(http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=1233789) that an unexpected
burst of meteors on October 5, 2005 has occurred, which betrayed the presence of
a thusfar unknown, potentially Earth-threatening, comet.

The burst of meteors radiated from a direction on the border of the
constellations Draco and Camelopardalis, and the new shower is called the
October Camelopardalids. The meteors were caused by dust ejected by an
Intermediate Long-Period comet during its previous return to the Sun, and the
detection of the comet's dust trail implies that the comet itself could wander
into Earth's path, if so directed by the gravitational pull of the planets. The
comet itself has not yet been discovered and is likely to return to Earth's
vicinity only once every 200 - 10,000 years. Chances are very small that Earth
will be at the intersection point at the time of the return, hence, there is no
immediate concern. The dust, however, is forensic evidence that may provide more insight into the nature of this new comet when the meteor shower is seen again in the future.

2005 OCTOBER 5 OUTBURST OF OCTOBER CAMELOPARDALIDS

Peter Jenniskens, Jarmo Moilanen, Esko Lyytinen, Ilkka Yrjölä, Jeff Brower

http://www.seti.org/atf/cf/{B0D4BC0E-D59B-...}/WGNreport.pdf

Camelopardalids? Don't ask me why, but that name just sounds so... absurd, somehow...

-the other Doug

The naming is unavoidable, as meteor showers are named for the constellation in which the radiant appears. For my own part, I find the name strangely pleasing. And yes, I know the constellation is "Giraffe".

Camelopardalids sounds more like a name for a bug than it does a celestial event, but whatever...

The greek translation of camelopardalids is "the ones from the motley camel" , and the word "pardali" (motley) is also slang for "hooker". Try beating that for absurdiness

It's been done. There's an old story that claims the constellation Lynx was given its name because some celestial cartographer (can't remember which one) figured that a person would need the eyes of a lynx to see anything there. That's right... a constellation named after a joke, and not a great joke either.

Admittedly, the above does have that "urban legend" feel about it. However, I've never seen it refuted. Perhaps it's just that nobody has bothered.

Ok, forget that hooker thing! That's nothing to do with it.

Leo (lion) + pard- (spotted, motley) = leopard - a spotted lion.

Camel + leopard = critter with characteristics of a camel and a leopard, = a giraffe.


Phil

In terms of celestial names that are hard to chew for an English speaker, I've always been fond of the names of the brightest stars in the constellation Libra: Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali - according to Robert Burnham - "The Southern Claw" and "The Northern Claw" respectively

Completely off topic, but, as far as I know:

Leo + pard = spotted lion = leopardos/male, leopardali/female (greek) --> leopard (latin)
Camel + pard = spotted camel = camelopardos/male, camelopardali/female (greek) --> camelopard (latin)

The old slang use of "pardali" comes from many years ago when "professionals" wore colorful clothes

Speaking of stellar jokes, a real one was done by the Apollo 1 astronauts. They put their names on several stars on a star chart they were using to practice celestial navigation for their 1967 space mission, which sadly never came to pass.

http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.postland.html#1051133

http://history.nasa.gov/ap16fj/02earth_orbit.htm

http://www.obliquity.com/skyeye/88const/cas.html

Yep - without clicking the links, I can tell you the names were Regor (Roger spelled backwards, for Roger Chaffee), Navi (Ivan spelled backwards, for Virgil Ivan Grissom) and Dnecos (for Edward H. White II -- i.e., the Second, which Dnecos is, backwards).

-the other Doug

Paper: astro-ph/0512256

Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2005 18:09:29 GMT (1409kb)

Title: Origin and Dynamical Evolution of Comets and their Reservoirs

Authors: Alessandro Morbidelli

Comments: Lectures on comets dynamics and outer solar system formation. 86
pages, 34 figures, 180 references
\\
This text was originally written to accompany a series of lectures that I
gave at the `35th Saas-Fee advanced course' in Switzerland and at the Institute
for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii. It reviews my current understanding
of the dynamics of comets and of the origin and primordial sculpting of their
reservoirs. It starts discussing the structure of the Kuiper belt and the
current dynamics of Kuiper belt objects, including scattered disk objects. Then
it discusses the dynamical evolution of Jupiter family comets from the
trans-Neptunian region, and of long period comets from the Oort cloud. The
formation of the Oort cloud is then reviewed, as well as the primordial
sculpting of the Kuiper belt. Finally, these issues are revisited in the light
of a new model of giant planets evolution that has been developed to explain
the origin of the late heavy bombardment of the terrestrial planets.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0512256 , 1301kb)

Paper: astro-ph/0601022

Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006 07:54:10 GMT (461kb)

Title: The red rain phenomenon of Kerala and its possible extraterrestrial
origin

Authors: Godfrey Louis and A. Santhosh Kumar (Mahatma Gandhi University,
Kottayam, India)

Comments: 18 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysics and
Space Science
\\
A red rain phenomenon occurred in Kerala, India starting from 25th July 2001,
in which the rainwater appeared coloured in various localized places that are
spread over a few hundred kilometers in Kerala. Maximum cases were reported
during the first 10 days and isolated cases were found to occur for about 2
months. The striking red colouration of the rainwater was found to be due to
the suspension of microscopic red particles having the appearance of biological
cells. These particles have no similarity with usual desert dust. An estimated
minimum quantity of 50,000 kg of red particles has fallen from the sky through
red rain. An analysis of this strange phenomenon further shows that the
conventional atmospheric transport processes like dust storms etc. cannot
explain this phenomenon. The electron microscopic study of the red particles
shows fine cell structure indicating their biological cell like nature. EDAX
analysis shows that the major elements present in these cell like particles are
carbon and oxygen. Strangely, a test for DNA using Ethidium Bromide dye
fluorescence technique indicates absence of DNA in these cells. In the context
of a suspected link between a meteor airburst event and the red rain, the
possibility for the extraterrestrial origin of these particles from cometary
fragments is discussed.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601022 , 461kb)

Mad stuff. Does anyone know of any other research into this? Seems like reasonable research but it needs a bit more work to support the potential extra terrestrial origin claim.

I'd say it needs a lot more work to support the ET claim; in fact, I can't believe that the journal acccepted this paper.

"Gee, there was an airburst meteor at around the same time" is a tenuous connection at best, and certainly doesn't provide any explanation for the long-term persistence combined with the localization of the phenomenon; air masses move around!

Asteroid breakup event covered the planet Earth in extraterrestrial dust

Boulder, Colorado -- January 18, 2006 -- Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), and Charles University in the Czech Republic have made the first positive link between a breakup event in the main asteroid belt and a large quantity of interplanetary dust particles deposited on Earth.

Sediments found in oceanic core samples indicate that millions of years ago, the Earth was blanketed by extraterrestrial dust. Computer simulations indicate these particles are fallout from the breakup of a large asteroid in the main asteroid belt, a population of interplanetary bodies ranging from tiny pebbles to Texas-sized rocks located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

These findings appear in the Jan. 19 issue of the journal Nature.

http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2006/Asteroid.htm

Around here we got protococcus nivalis which causes red snow, my bet are that it might be a different but similar species.

The funny thing is that there's ample evidence for large-scale dust transport in regions which don't normally get considered as being The Usual Suspects for such things - I've seen satellite images of Saharan dust over the Atlantic, and the stuff regularly seems to land on southern England. So why involve a putative airburst? I'm sure that there are a range of interesting bits of against-the grain meteorology out there, but in any case I for one would be much more tempted to accept some unknown Terrestrial atmospheric process before a once-in-a-lifetime (squared) interplanetary event. Really, it smells of them things that fall out of the sky, oh, what do you call 'em, oh yes: fish.

Bob Shaw

It has been known to rain fish and frogs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/features/h...ning_fish.shtml

http://www.crystalinks.com/weirdweather.html

http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/tornadoes.html

But what next, a whale swimming up the Thames?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100...UQ&refer=europe

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4633878.stm

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200605310921.htm

Red rain caused by disintegration of comet: study

Kottayam, May 31 (PTI): The "red rains" in Kerala five years ago was the result of the atmospheric disintegration of a comet, according to a study.

The study conducted at the School of Pure and Applied Physics of the MG University here by Dr Godfrey Louis and his student Santosh Kumar shows that red rain cells were devoid of DNA which suggests their extra-terrestrial origin.

The findings published in the international journal 'Astrophysics and Space Science' state that the cometery fragment contained dense collection of red cells.

Commenting on the study at a press conference here, Dr N Chandra Wikramesinghe, Director of Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, UK, said "what makes this study most important is the similarity of the red particles with living cells."

"If the red rain cells are finally proved to be of extra-terrestrial origin then that would be one of the most important discoveries in human history. It will change our concept about the universe and life," he added.

The red-coloured rains were reported in different parts of Kerala from July to September 2001.

To say that I'm suspicious of this report is an understatement. Indeed, it sounds kind of like Charles Fort's books.

CNN/Popular Science have something to say on the Red Rains of Kerala:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/02...rain/index.html

I just hope some additional reputable labs and scientists will give them a
serious examination.

They need to ignore the alien hype and find out what these things are.