[IAUC] CBET 3869: 20140517 : POSSIBLE NEW METEOR SHOWER FROM COMET 209P/LINEAR

[quai en eps.harvard.edu]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 3869
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
CBAT Director:  Daniel W. E. Green; Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
 20 Oxford St.; Cambridge, MA  02138; U.S.A.
e-mail:  cbatiau en eps.harvard.edu (alternate cbat en iau.org)
URL http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/index.html
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


POSSIBLE NEW METEOR SHOWER FROM COMET 209P/LINEAR
     P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center; and E.
Lyytinen, Helsinki, Finland, report that a new meteor shower may be visible
for observers in the United States and southern parts of Canada between 2014
May 24d06h03m and 8h09m UT, with peak activity most likely between 6h33m
and 7h49m UT (cf., Jenniskens 2006, *Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets*,
Cambridge University Press, p. 689).  The new shower is anticipated because
the orbit of the Jupiter-family comet 209P/LINEAR (period 5.03 years) has
gradually moved closer to the earth's orbit, and the earth will have an
exceptionally close encounter with the comet itself in late May (minimum
distance 0.0554 AU).  Moreover, the earth will pass the comet's orbit near
perihelion, where most past dust ejecta are concentrated in a relatively small
region of space.  Whether or not a meteor shower will be visible depends on
the unknown past activity of this now-weakly-active comet, long before it was
first detected in 2004.  If the shower manifests, then meteors will radiate
from R.A. = 125 deg, Decl. = +78 deg (equinox 2000.0), in the constellation
Camelopardalis and will have a slow apparent entry speed of 19.4 km/s.  A
summary of more-recent prediction modeling and a tool to calculate the best
local times for viewing this event can be seen at URL http://meteor.seti.org.


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                         (C) Copyright 2014 CBAT
2014 May 17                      (CBET 3869)              Daniel W. E. Green