(meteorobs) Are Meteor Showers Misunderstood?

Skywayinc at aol.com Skywayinc at aol.com
Fri Jun 17 13:02:25 EDT 2005


In a message dated 6/17/05 12:50:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
peter at brunone.com writes:

<<  I thought 3200 Phaeton was an asteroid, not a comet (and this is
 what made the Geminids unique).
  >>
    Most astronomy texts state that the Geminids stand apart from the other 
meteor showers in that they seem to have been spawned not by a comet, but by 
3200 Phaeton, an Earth-crossing asteroid.  Then again, the Geminids may be comet 
debris after all, for some astronomers consider Phaeton to really be the dead 
nucleus of a burned-out comet that somehow got trapped into an unusually 
tight orbit.  

-- joe rao


More information about the Meteorobs mailing list