The Dust Trail of Comet 209P/LINEAR
- Visualizations by:
- Tom Bridgman
- View full credits
This visualization opens with an overview of the comet orbit, which lies between the orbit of Jupiter and Earth. The camera then zooms-in to a close-up of the comet orbit intesecting the orbit of the Earth on May 23-24, 2014. Note that the comet itself, which is very small and faint, passes behind the Earth and poses no risk of collision.
The comet's orbit has been altered by the gravitational perturbations from Jupiter so that the dust left behind in the comet's path will now cross the orbit of Earth. The dust has a chance of appearing in the night sky of May 23-24 as a new meteor shower appearing to radiate from the constellation Camelopardalis.
This visualization opens with an overview of the comet orbit, which lies between the orbit of Jupiter and Earth. The camera then zooms-in to a close-up of the comet orbit intesecting the orbit of the Earth on May 23-24, 2014. Note that the comet itself, which is very small and faint, passes behind the Earth and poses no risk of collision.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
Animator
- Tom Bridgman (GST) [Lead]
Scientists
- Carl Hergenrother (The University of Arizona)
- Stefanie Milam (NASA/GSFC)
Producers
- Dan Gallagher (KBRwyle)
- David Ladd (AIMM)
- Michelle Handleman (KBRwyle)
Project support
- Ian Jones (ADNET)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET)
Datasets used in this visualization
DE421 (A.K.A. JPL DE421)
Planetary ephemerides
Dataset can be found at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?ephemerides#planets
See more visualizations using this data setJPL/Horizon Orbital Ephemerides
Planetary ephemerides
Dataset can be found at: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons
See more visualizations using this data setNote: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.
Related pages
2014 New Meteor Shower Live Shot Broll
May 22, 2014, 5 a.m.
Read moreLive shot b-roll for new meteor shower May 24, 2014 B-roll for new meteor shower happening May 24, 2014 Images of Comet 209P/LinearCredit for the images: Carl Hergenrother/University of Arizona/Vatican Observatory. Images taken with the Vatican Observatory 1.8-m VATT telescope by Carl Hergenrother of the University of Arizona on 2014 May 9 UT. Carl Hergenrother / OSIRIS Rex Investigator, University of Arizona discusses upcoming meteor shower NASA Scientist, Stefanie Milam speaks about upcoming meteor showers NASA Scientist, Michelle Thaller speaks about upcoming meteor showers NASA Scientist, Jim Garvin speaks about upcoming meteor showersFor complete transcript, click here.