(meteorobs) Martian Meteor Shower

[meteoreye at comcast.net]

I think the difference is that this time, what is being reported is actual detections (although not visible) of such showers. Certainly they have been theoretical constructs for many years.

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Roberto G." <md6648 at mclink.it> 

> From: 
> 
> > Shooting Star Shower Spotted on Mars 
> > By Dave Mosher 
> > Staff Writer 
> > posted: 1 April 2008 
> > 7:01 p.m. ET 
> > 
> > 
> > A shower of shooting stars has been recorded by instruments on Mars for 
> > the first time, astronomers say. 
> > Meteors have been spotted before by the Mars rovers, but no device has 
> > ever detected a full shower until now. 
> > United Kingdom astronomers predicted the event by tracking a comet's path 
> > near Mars, then comparing their forecast with Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) 
> > satellite data of the red planet's ionosphere - the upper reaches of 
> > atmosphere teeming with charged particles. 
> > "Just as we can predict meteor outbursts at Earth, such as the Leonids 
> > [shower that occurs every November], we can also predict when meteor 
> > showers are going to occur at Mars and Venus," said Apostolos Christou, an 
> > astronomer at the U.K.'s Armagh Observatory who helped predict the martian 
> > meteoric event. 
> > Christou is set to present findings about the meteor-showering pass of 
> > comet 79P/du Toit-Hartley at the Royal Astronomical Society's National 
> > Astronomy Meeting in Belfast on April 2. 
> > 
> > Full Story: 
> > http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080401-mars-shooting-stars.html 
> 
> New or old news? 
> During the IMC of 23-26 September 1993 (Puimichel, France), yes, 1993, the 
> same 
> IMC where Asher was showing its previsions of Taurids, Alexandra Terentjeva 
> was 
> showing the Martian meteor showers, 58 martian meteor showers, then the 
> topic 
> it's old! And I think that it wasn't the first time that somebody was 
> calculating meteor 
> showers of Mars. 
> Some day ago I noted that a new discovered asteroid should near sure a 
> parent body 
> of a martian meteor shower, the asteroid it's 2008 FF5 (MPEC circular MPEC 
> 2008-F50) 
> http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K08/K08F50.html 
> this body it's a body that near miss the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth and 
> Mars 
> and for Mars it's very probably that do a meteor shower, see at 
> 
> http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2008+FF5+&orb=1 
> 
> the problem it's that we have only a very little arc of orbit, this orbit 
> changed 
> of period from the first ci8rcular from 5,8 yeara to 3,33 years at the today 
> 3,41 years, 
> but all time it's near Mars orbit. Perharps 2008 FF5 not do a meteor martian 
> shower 
> but certainly its inclination, little more of 2.5° show that must receive a 
> big 
> attention from professional astronomers, too for its very little MOID with 
> the 
> 4 planets. 
> Best greetings. 
> Roberto Gorelli 
> 
> 
> 
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