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re: (meteorobs) Internet Message



Actually, Duncan Steele and Victor Clube would disagree with you on the
assumption that meteor showers can't hurt anyone. They have offered plenty
of evidence that a daytime shower, the Beta Taurids of June, have been
responsible for the Tunguska blast of 1908 and several other large
detonations in history. A part of this stream is seen in November as the
Taurids. Comet Encke may be the largest body within this stream, and a few
asteroids may also belong to this family. The theory is that something big
once moved in the current orbit of the Beta Taurids, but it broke up. Our
most likely threat of a future disaster may come from this stream. (I am
not an expert on Steele and Clube's theory and cannot offer much more than
what I offered here. Clube and another gentleman with the last name of
Napier wrote a book a few years ago giving many details, and Steele has
published several interesting articles in the Observatory during the last
10 years).

Gary