PLEASE NOTE:
*
Date sent: Thu, 06 Nov
1997 11:33:30 -0500 (EST)
From:
Benny J Peiser <B.J.PEISER@livjm.ac.uk
Subject: TV
Documentary on Impact Threat
To:
cambridge-conference@livjm.ac.uk
Priority: NORMAL
From: Neil Furguson, Transmediaproduction
<Transmediaprods@compuserve.com
I am currently researching a programme about the impact threat
of
meteorites [sic]. The programme has been commissioned by Sky
Television in London and will be recorded in January/February
1998.
I am keen to look at all aspects of the meteorite threat, from
the
history of impacts to the risk the Earth faces today and what we
should be doing to protect ourselves.
If you have anything to say on the subject I would be very
keen to
hear from you.
For your records my address is
Transmedia Productions
Paramount House
162 - 170 Wardour Street
London
W1V 3AT
TEL: 010 +44 171 287 3680
FAX: 010 +44 171 437 5857
Neil Ferguson.
*
Date sent: Thu, 06 Nov
1997 09:05:43 -0500 (EST)
From:
Benny J Peiser <B.J.PEISER@livjm.ac.uk
Subject:
Re: COMETS GALORE: WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE SOHO DATA?
To:
cambridge-conference@livjm.ac.uk
Priority: NORMAL
COMETS GALORE: WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE SOHO DATA?
From: Bill Napier <wmn@star.arm.ac.uk
Dear Benny,
On Gerrit's recent contribution, virtually all the sungrazers
being
discovered by SOHO are members of the Kreutz group (a point I
made in
my Cambridge presentation). The original progenitor, clearly a
giant
comet, has spawned thousands if not tens of thousands of cometary
fragments and indeed seems to be in a virtually continuous state
of
disintegration. Because of its retrograde orbit it has attained
the
sungrazing state at a high inclination to the ecliptic, but had
the
progenitor been in a prograde orbit it would (due to the Kozai
cycle)
have attained the sungrazing state in the plane of the ecliptic,
and
the Earth would now be immersed in the stream, with a night sky
very
different from the one we see now. The Kreutz complex is a living
example of precisely the kind of phenomenon Victor and I have
been
discussing for many years. Of course the Taurid progenitor was
thrown into a short-period, low-inclination orbit, which enhances
the
encounter rate with the Earth. (The papers by Brian Marsden
amount to
definitive studies of the Kreutz group: AJ 72, 1170, 1967 and AJ
98,
2306, 1989.)
Best wishes
Bill Napier
Armagh Observatory
*
Date sent: Thu, 6 Nov
1997 10:35:16 +0000 (GMT)
From:
Jonathan Shanklin <jdsh@mail.nerc-bas.ac.uk
To:
Benny J Peiser <B.J.PEISER@livjm.ac.uk
Copies to:
cambridge-conference@livjm.ac.uk
Subject:
Re: COMETS GALORE: WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE SOHO DATA?
You can find a listing of the SOHO comets, with a breakdown on
their orbital
sub-groups on the BAA comet section web page at
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/comfull.htm
the link to Kreutz gives some more
background information. General comet news is on the home
page at
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds
Jon Shanklin
j.shanklin@bas.ac.uk
British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, England
http://www.nbs.ac.uk/public/icd/jds