Catch

a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

The Draconides 2011 and comets!

Written by: Andreas Msvraa Gaarde Gad & Vibe Primdahl Tnnes
High School: Alssundgymnasiet Snderborg, Grundtvigs All 86, DK-6400 Snderborg, Denmark Teacher: Michael Lentfer Jensen Mail: mj@ags.dk Phone: +45 40 88 36 18
Figure 1: Meteor October 8th during the draconid meteor shower

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Catch a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

Draconides! lots of shooting stars on cold and clear danish night.

We have recently been watching the meteor shower called Draconides on October 8th 2011. We counted a total of 204 shooting stars in just 2 hours and five minutes! The maximum frequency of shooting stars we observed was 3.8 per minute! And the average was 1.6 per minute. We divided the observation time in intervals of 5 minutes and noted every single meteor with a pencil on a post it note. The outcome of our observations is presented in figure 2.

Figure 2: Number of meteors observed in 5 minutes intervals.

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Catch a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

Comparing our observations with the observations of Nasa there are clearly agreements. Nasa has predicted the maximum in the draconid meteor shower at 21:11 (CEST=UT+2h) Danish time (DT) and 21:40, and our maximum is approximately 22:05. This Is close to the prediction. Nasa predicted very high activity until almost 22:53 (DT) which fits our observation. After that time, the amount of observations fell drastically. Under the observation we clearly felt the increase of meteor shower observed during the predicted maximum time.

Figure 3: Time predictions for the draconid meteorshower, NASA. [1]
i

The meteors show up since the Earth is hit by dusty filaments from the Comet 21P/Giacobini- Zinner. But what is actually holding comets into their orbit around the sun? Let us start with a look on forces of a circular motion:

Fcircle

= !

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Catch a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

The circle force is caused by the gravity of the central object. This goes for the planets as well. As Newton describes through his different laws of physics two objects with a masses m and M and the radius r, drag each other with an internal gravity. See the formula below:
=
!!! !!

= 6,67 10!!!

!!! !!!!

This is one of the most important formulas in the universe. This law explains why all comet remains and meteorites in the early days were formed into planets like our own earth. Conclusion: We have now introduces the formula for gravity and circular motion. Isaac Newton was one of the first to consider the possibility for travel in space. One of Isaac Newtons ideas dealt with placing a canon on a mountain. If you shoot of the canon ball it would land somewhere on the earth (spot A). If you increased the speed of
Figure 4 - picture of earth, canon and canon ball

the canon ball under the firing, the ball would land further away (spot B).

Newtons idea was that if you increased the speed on the ball enough, it wouldnt land, but continue orbiting the planet. In a situation like this the ball will remain in a perfect circular orbit around the planet. Therefore the forces of gravity and the force of the circle will equal each other: !"#!$% = !"#$%&' ! = ! ! = ! As shown by reducing the formula the small mass (satellite) can be reduces on both sides, and therefore it has no effect on the forces between the two objects.

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Catch a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

By reducing further with the radius we get the following formula: ! = From the formula above it is clear that the speed of the satellite is independent of its own mass. When the satellite is orbiting around the earth it is impossible to define the mass of the satellite. Keplers laws of circular motion: If we look at the formula from before: ! = A circle has a circumference: 2 The time it takes for our planet to run through an orbit is called T Therefore we can describe the speed of our planet with the distance in the orbit divided with the time of the orbit. = Assignment 1: Now we can combine the two different formulas. =
!!! ! !! !

2 =

and ! =

2
! !

4 ! = !
4 = ! ! ! 4 ! = ! 4 ! = !

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Catch a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

Therefore formula can be described as:

! = !

This clearly shows that time of the orbit and the radius is dependent on each other. An ellipse is a circle$, and in most aspects of the universe objects doesnt move in circular orbits but in ellipses.

Figure 5- drawing of an ellipse

The drawing above shows an object moving around our own sun. F.eks. a comet or a small planet. The long horizontal radius of the ellipse is called a (red), and the short vertical radius of the ellipse is called b (green). The sun is not placed in the center of the ellipse, but placed in the focal point of the ellipse. The distance between (0,0) the center of the ellipse and the sun is called as shown on the figure. Comparing to the earth and the sun the eccentricity = !", and the sun is therefore almost in the center of the ellipse. A way to find b is with this formula: = (1 ! )
!

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Catch a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

Assignment 2 We will find b when e=0, and explain what happens to the length of = = 1 0!

This shows us, that when e=0, the sun is in the center of the ellipse. This also means that the ellipse is now a perfect circle, because the length of a and b are the same.

Keplers love Johannes Kepler 1571-1630 expressed a series of laws revolving the planets orbiting around the sun, based on the observations of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. 1. Law: All planets move in elliptic orbits with the sun in one of the focal points. (1609) 2. Law: Radius vector - the line that goes from the sun and out to the planet overruns the same area pr time. (1609) look at figure 6 below. 3. Law:
!! !!

= =

!!! !!

(1618)

The second law is easiest described by a drawing like the one below:

Figure 6 - the constant area overrun pr. time

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Catch a Star 2011

!!

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

From time 1 until 2: The planet is far away from the sun and therefore the speed is low. You can see this in keplers 3. Law: !! = . When the radius (a) is large, the T (time for orbit) gets larger, and therefore the speed is lower. From time 3 until 4: the planet is close to the sun, and therefore the speed is high. In the same way as before you can see this from Keplers 3. Law. Kepler observed that the area of the two grey areas on figure 6 was the same. We can therefore conclude that when the planet is close to the sun its speed is high, and opposite when the planet is far away from the planet the speed is low. Looking at Keplers 3. Law again. 3. Law:
!! !!

= =

!!! !!

(1618)

The law was shown earlier with perfect circles, but the law also includes ellipses. Assignment 3. We know the distance from the earth to the sun 1 AU (Astronomical Unit) =149,6 million kilometers in meters 149,6 billion meters. Furthermore we now that the orbital time is one year. In seconds 31557600 s.
! (31557600 s) = = 2,97449 1019 3 ! 9
2

149,6 10 m

An official measurement on Giacobini-Zinner shows that a (horizontal radius) is 3,526 AU for the comet. Now we can calculate the period T for this comet with Keplers 3. Law.
!
!

3,526 149,6 10 m

= 2,97449 10

19

2,97449 10!!" 3,526 149,6 10! m In years:

= = 2,08943 10!

2,08943 10! s = 6,62099 31557600 year

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Catch a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

Assignment 4 The comet Giacobini-Zinner is estimated to have a diameter on 2 kilometers. We assume that the comet !" 600 !! is spherical, and we assume that the density is as most of other comets. We will calculate the volume of the comet: = ! ! 4 = 1000 ! = 4,18879 10! ! 3 We will now calculate the weight of the comet: = 600 ! 4,18879 10! ! = 2,51327 10!" We will now calculate the kinetic energy with this formula: !"# = 1 ! 2
!

Figure 7 movie picture from Deep Impact.

We need to calculate the speed of the comet with this formula: ! =

! = 6,67 10!!!

! 1,98843 10!" !!
9

3,526 149,6 10 m 1 !"# = 2,51327 10!" ! 2

= 2,51433 108

!"# = 2,68116 10!" J = 2,68116 10!" MJ We will now compare this with the amount of TNT needed to equal the energy. TNT has the calorific value 4,2 !".
!"

!"# =

2,68116 10!" MJ = 6,3837 10!" = 6,3837 10!" 4,2

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Catch a Star 2011

Alssundgymnasiet Denmark

28-10-2011

This means that it takes 6,3837 10!" of TNT to equal the amount of kinetic energy in Giacobini-Zinner. The 6th of August 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima in Japan. This bomb unleashed energy equal to 12.000 tons of TNT and this bomb killed about 80.000 people. To get a feeling for how much kinetic energy Giacobini-Zinner has, we will now show how many bombs like the one in Hiroshima that is. 6,3837 10!" = 5,31975 10! 12.000 This means that if Giacobini-Zinner hits the earth, it will be equivalent to the earth being hit by more than 5,3 million atomic bombs! Note: If Giacobini-Zinner hits an ocean on the Earth, it would trigger enormous tsunamis somewhere between 300-1000 meters high, moving up to 400 km/t. Other than that, it would cause other serious environmental disasters: First off, dust would be hurled in the atmosphere, causing the sunlight will not be able to penetrate the dust making the temperature decrease till 40. Nitrogen and Oxygen will, with water, create Figure 8 image from the movie: the day after tomorrow. nitric acid, causing the snow to be like the acid in batteries. Lastly, when the dust has settled again, the atmosphere will be full of CO2 because of all the fires. This will mean that the greenhouse effect will reach crazy dimensions.

[1] http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=07&month=10&year=2011

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