On any clear night you might see a handful of “shooting stars” streaking
across the night sky. Long ago people thought the stars were actually falling
from the sky. Now we know these brief streaks in the night sky, called
meteors, are tiny bits of solar system debris most of it smaller than a pea.
Entering the Earth’s thin upper atmosphere at tens of thousands of miles an
hour, heat from friction completely vaporizes the intruders. Much of this
debris comes from the tail of comets.

On the morning of February 12, 1947 startled witnesses reported seeing a
fireball brighter than the sun streaking across the Russian skies. Traveling
at over 31,000 miles an hour the meteor plummeted down to 15,000 feet where
it violently exploded from the stress of the heating and atmospheric shock.
Over more than a half a square mile area debris impacted the ground leaving
80 foot diameter craters 20 feet deep. This was something much bigger than
comet dust, It is estimated that the meteor weighed over 200,000 pounds
before it exploded. How often does this happen? Russia was visited by another
space rock just this past February 15th. An event captured by many video
cameras.

Join the Cincinnati Astronomical Society Saturday August 10th from 8:00 to
10pm for a family program on Rocks From Space!
• Presentation by Dr. Kendall Hauer, Director of Miami Universities’
Limper Museum.
• Get up close to spectacular Rocks from Space!
• Learn what meteorites are made of.
• Hold in your hands rocks older than our Solar System!
• Does Ohio have its own Meteor Crater?
• If there are meteor showers can there be a meteor storm?
• Can you hear a meteors?
• Find out how best and where to see the meteor showers.
• Did you know you can collect “rocks from space” at home?
• View through the Society’s big telescopes! (weather permitting)

• Saturday August 10th
• Program begins at 8:00pm.
o Viewing follows after dark (weather permitting)
• Free Admission; Donations appreciated.
• Open to all ages.
• No reservations required.
• All events are held at The Cincinnati Astronomical Society
5274 Zion Rd. Cleves, OH 45002 (near the Mitchell Memorial Forest)

Visit our website and Facebook for a listing of all our public, scout and
school events for 2011.
http://www.cinastro.org

For more information and teacher resources:
http://www.cas.miamioh.edu/glg/museum/
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets
http://nineplanets.org/meteorites.html
http://stargazersonline.org/