17-12-03 11:54,
tgpedersen@... wrote:
> There is a myth that Merope, one of the Pleiades, was extinguished at
> the time of the fall of Troy. If that astronomical event happened at
> the same time as some disatrous Taurid meteor shower event, you'd
> have a connection.
>
> http://www.meteorobs.org/maillist/msg19578.html
"If", as the Spartans said to Philip of Macedon. Your reference is OK,
but where does it mention deadly meteor showers? The Taurids don't do
much harm (by sheer luck, I've seen a very spectacular flash from one of
them the other night), and until 1869, when their radiants were pinned
down, nobody called them "Taurids" or associated them with the
constellation of Taurus.
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/taurids.html
For real devastation you need a huge meteorite or a small asteroid, not
just the ususal small debris from disintegrating comets that forms
meteor showers. When something like that happens (more or less once a
century) there's suddenly a blinding fireball overhead and then a mighty
bang. The witnesses wouldn't even know where in the sky it came from.
Piotr