Is it raining from space?
No need to wait for April showers, it’s raining from space. Not rain as we know it, but the daily barrage of meteoritic material that falls into the earths atmosphere. This process is most commonly associated with Meteor showers, but between those dates there is some 100 tons of material that falls into the earths atmosphere every day. When you consider a lot of it burns up in the atmosphere or get’s washed away it’s not as much as you think. One of the many moons of Saturn called Enceladus seems to have an ocean of liquid water beneath an ice crust. There also seems to be a hot spot on the southern part of the Moon. Also, don’t miss a spectacular image of our moon from The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.[audio: st20110314.mp3]
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Skytalk is hosted by WHYY's Dave Heller. Each week he discusses the latest news in astronomy with Dr. Derrick H. Pitts of the Franklin Institute.
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