Perseid meteors set to dazzle

One of the year's most impressive meteor showers is firing up as the Earth swings through a trail of debris left by a comet.

The Perseids will peak on the night of 12 August, streaking through the dark skies of a New Moon. At its peak, the shower is expected to produce one or two meteors per minute, according to Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, Alabama, US. Watch a video of a Perseid meteor on spaceweather.com.

The Perseids, which appear to be shooting out of the constellation Perseus, are primarily a northern hemisphere show, although a few meteors may be seen just south of the equator.
The meteors are cast-offs from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 135 years and last swept through the inner solar system in 1992. Comets are made up of ice and dust, and as they approach the Sun, the ice begins to evaporate, releasing dust that streams in a tail behind the comet.

Earth's orbit takes it through the tail of the comet every summer in the northern hemisphere, bombarding the planet with meteors. Most are no bigger than a grain of sand, but they burn spectacularly as they shoot through our atmosphere at 60 kilometres per second.
Dazzling earthgrazers.

The Earth is now on its way through comet Swift-Tuttle's tail, so Perseid meteors are already visible in the night sky. The shower will be at its best, however, on 12 August.
The spectacle begins as Perseus rises in the northeastern sky around 2100 (9 pm) in every time zone. That is the best time to look for dazzling "earthgrazers": meteors that emerge from the horizon and glide overhead. Observers will be lucky to spot a few of these in an hour, Cooke says, but "they are among the most beautiful of meteors".

The Perseids will reach their peak in the pre-dawn hours of 13 August, with the added allure of Mars floating just below Perseus. By then, Cooke says, "dozens of Perseids may be flitting across the sky every hour".

Comet connection

The Perseids are the subjects of some of mankind's earliest records of meteors, made by Chinese astronomers a millennium ago.
In the Middle Ages, the Perseids were known in England as the "tears of St. Lawrence" after the third-century archdeacon of Rome. Meteors streaked through the sky on 10 August 258, the day of his execution by order of the emperor Valerian, and reappeared every year around St. Lawrence's feast day.

In the 1860s, Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, famous for naming lines on Mars "canali", figured out that the path of the Perseids followed that of comet Swift-Tuttle, making him the first to connect meteors with comets.

Turkey registers Jehovah’s Witnesses’ association

ISTANBUL, TURKEY—On Tuesday, July 31, 2007, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Turkey received a letter of certification confirming that the “Association for the Support of Jehovah’s Witnesses” has been officially registered. Because they were able to register this religious legal entity, the Witnesses can now purchase and own property, rent meeting places for conventions, accept donations, and defend their legal interests in court when necessary. One European official characterized the development as “revolutionary.”
The international Christian religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses was granted this significantly improved status in Turkey despite some obstacles along the way. In 2004, the government passed a new law that allowed religious associations to be formed, in line with European standards. Jehovah’s Witnesses filed the charter for their Association to the Istanbul authorities on July 11, 2005. The constitutionality of the charter was challenged in court by government officials. Finally, on May 17, 2007, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Sisli 3rd First Instance Court in Istanbul, confirming that the charter for the Association complied with the Turkish Constitution.
In recent years, freedom of worship for Jehovah’s Witnesses has been improving in Turkey. However, some Jehovah’s Witnesses still face fines and imprisonment. There are, for example, no provisions in the law for conscientious objection and neither is there any opportunity for alternative civilian service.
The modern-day activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Turkey can be traced back to 1933, when 22 persons assembled together for the Memorial of Christ’s death and 5 were baptized. Today, some 3,500 members and active supporters make up 33 congregations and groups of Jehovah’s Witnesses there.
Contacts:In Turkey: Ercument Kadim, telephone +90 533 630 02 12In Belgium: Luca Toffoli, telephone +32 (0) 475 58 10 36 or + 32 (0)2 782 00 15In the United States: James Andrik, telephone (845) 306-0711


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Copyright © 2007 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.

Israel warns against travel in Egypt and Jordan

The Associated Press
Published: August 6, 2007

JERUSALEM: Israeli security officials on Monday warned citizens traveling in Egypt, Jordan and other Muslim countries to leave immediately due to a "concrete and severe" threat of terror attacks.
Israelis anywhere in the world should also be alert to the danger of being kidnapped by operatives from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, according to the announcement from Israel's National Security Council.
Israeli tourists are allowed to visit Egypt and Jordan, which have peace agreements with Israel. But the council said any Israeli citizens in those countries should cut their trips short.
The council also warned against travel to Morocco, where Israelis can visit with special permission from that country's government, and to Tunisia. But those warnings were less urgent than the "severe" warning for other Muslim states.
The announcement on the council's Web site, a renewal of a travel advisory issued twice a year, also warned Israelis not to travel to Mideastern countries like Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states, as well as African nations like Somalia, Djibouti and Chad.