Articles – August 2009

Friday Night Lights

Written by Mike Webb (8/09)

Small town. Friday night. Football field. Spectators. Could be a scene from any number of high school football-crazed small towns across the country. Except this was a night in mid-August. School is out for the summer. Besides, it was from 10 p.m. until 12:30 a.m.

What was going on? This was Meet Your Maker – Under the Stars, Great Outdoors Endeavor’s hosting of some folks to watch the meteors at the local Parks and Rec. fields at the high school. We supplied the hot chocolate, coffee, and water, a video – Created Cosmos – by Answers In Genesis, and a brief explanation of what was occurring and why. God supplied the meteors. As our President once famously remarked, those are “beyond my pay grade.”

Roughly 30 people showed up on a beautiful summer night to watch God’s “fireworks.” I saw plenty of familiar faces (actually, I should re-phrase that; it was really dark so I didn’t really “see” anything), and I had a chance to meet some new folks. I’d like to say I’ll recognize these folks again, but unless we have a chance at some face to face introductions, I’m afraid I won’t recognize them (please see previous comments regarding “darkness”). We even had a deputy sheriff pop in on us. No they weren’t slacking on the job; we were “the job.” Just checking on us to make sure we were OK. And, we were – except for their headlights. Headlights shining in your direction are not conducive to good meteor watching.

So what, exactly, were we seeing? In a nutshell:

Swift-Tuttle is a giant comet around 6 miles in diameter comprised of ice holding together loose rock particles. As Swift-Tuttle makes its annual orbit around the sun, it crosses the earth’s orbit once. As Swift-Tuttle nears it, our Sun’s heat melts some of the ice, freeing the mostly dust and sand grain sized particles, leaving a trail of debris in its wake.

Picture and “at grade” intersection on the highway. A dilapidated clunker (one that hadn’t been traded in under the “cash-for-clunkers” deal) travels along the southbound lane. As it travels, parts are falling off left and right, leaving a trail of debris behind as it goes.

Now, you approach the intersection from the east. As you cross the intersection, you drive over a bolt here, a fender there, etc, left behind from our clunker. (I hope you didn’t suffer any damage to your vehicle!) That sums up what is happening in our meteor shower. As Earth comes to the intersection, this debris, a sand particle here, a dust particle there, plows into our Earth’s atmosphere where it is, most often, incinerated. It’s incredible to think that particles this size could be responsible for the flashes and streaks of light we see, but they are.

Once every 130 (or so) years, comet Swift-Tuttle orbits the sun, and once per year the Earth passes through this stream of debris that has been left behind. Naturally, the debris stream is larger in the years immediately following the comet’s passing, which in turn, makes the meteor showers that much more impressive in terms of numbers.  If you missed it in 1992, you will be able to check it out in 2125!

Well, Great OutDoors’ goal is to uncover God in what we see in creation.  Our next post will examine that thought with regards to our meteor watching evening. Hope you’ll check back…