LEONID METEOR STORM SUNDAY - Most spectacular in 35 years

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News - Homefront Preparations : One Thread

Friday November 16 1:19 PM ET

Meteor Storm Set for Americas, Asia, Australia

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most spectacular Leonid meteor storm in 35 years is forecast for Sunday in the Americas and Monday in Asia and Australia as Earth passes near centuries-old debris left by comet Tempel-Tuttle.

The celestial storm could affect some satellites orbiting close to earth, so NASA scientists are making sure their spacecraft stay out of harm's way.

Leonid meteors -- so called because they appear to come from the same part of the sky as the constellation Leo -- fall to Earth each November, but this year's show should be especially dramatic, with some 30 shooting stars streaking across the American sky each minute at the storm's height and perhaps 100 a minute over eastern Asia and Australia.

During a normal year, Earth encounters some 10-15 Leonid meteors an hour at best.

This year is special because Earth will travel close to three paths of cosmic dust and debris left by comet Tempel-Tuttle's previous trips around the sun.

The comet orbits the sun every 33.25 years and takes a slightly different path each time; on Sunday and Monday Earth will swing near to dust trails left in 1699, 1767 and 1866, according to the American Meteor Society.

Observers in extreme northwestern South America, Central America and North America are likely to see meteors shooting across the heavens around 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT), when Earth gets near dust trail left by the 1767 encounter.

Those in eastern Asia and Australia have two chances for good viewing, with the first meteoric outburst, spawned by the 1699 debris trail, expected around 12:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) Sunday, or 1:30 a.m. on Monday in Korea and 4:30 a.m. in eastern Australia.

METEOR-GAZING PARTIES

The 1866 debris path could send meteors streaming aloft just 45 minutes later for Asian and Australian observers.

The American Meteor Society gives tips on best observing times and conditions on its Web site, www.amsmeteors.org.

Meteor-watching parties are planned from New York state to California to Hawaii and other events are slated for Taiwan and Australia, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration site, www.leonid.arc.nasa.gov.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where astronomers work with many orbiting spacecraft, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Bob Sodano is charged with cutting down the risk the Leonids pose.

Most Leonid meteors are about the size of a grain of salt and vaporize high in the atmosphere, posing no threat to anything on earth or even to aircraft, Sodano said in a telephone interview.

But though they are small, they are exceedingly fast, moving at 44 miles per second, and impact with a Leonid might affect might affect computers or power sources on satellites in low-earth orbit, Sodano said.

This high speed means Leonids vaporize on impact, forming a cloud of electrified gas called plasma, and this cloud might cause a short circuit in a satellite, possibly damaging some of its electrical components.

Sodano said the 20 or so NASA spacecraft at risk during the storm will be pointed away from the direction of the Leonid stream, and high-voltage components will be turned down.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Answers

Hmmm, is there a prophecy that covers this in light of recent events?

Be just my luck the biggest one in history hits my house.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001


Don't go there. . .

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

ChicSunTrib

Night sky set for celestial downpour Meteor storm may be best in decades

By William Mullen Tribune staff reporter Published November 17, 2001

Planet Earth's orbit around the sun in the next couple of days will plunge through trails of ancient comet dust, and skywatchers around the world are hopeful that Sunday they will see one of the most spectacular meteor storms in memory.

If expert predictions are right and the night is relatively cloudless, hundreds--and perhaps thousands--of shooting stars will light up the sky between 3 and 5 a.m. Sunday in the Chicago area.

The show is expected to be so brilliant that the brightest meteors will be visible even in Chicago, piercing the haze of artificial illumination from the city's millions of electric lights.

The most serious meteor devotees, however, will travel to rural viewing areas away from city lights to get the full effect of a heavenly fireworks extravaganza, the likes of which were last seen in 1966 and are not expected to return until 2099.

Meteors, also called shooting stars, are simply tiny bits of space debris--most no bigger than a grain of sand--that ignite and burn up brilliantly as they collide with Earth's atmosphere.

Every year around Nov. 17 or 18, astronomers and skywatchers perk up for the annual Leonid meteor shower. It's a time when Earth crosses through various errant trails of dust and grit shed by Tempel-Tuttle, a comet that orbits the sun every 33 years.

Most years Earth encounters no more than a few bits of Tempel-Tuttle dust, but even the promise of a dozen or two shooting stars an hour is enough to keep dedicated meteor spotters up all night.

This year, however, astronomers believe Earth will cross three relatively dense trails of Tempel-Tuttle dust, igniting 4,000 or more shooting stars an hour. The first trail the planet will penetrate was laid down in 1767, and it is supposed to provide North America's pyrotechnics early Sunday.

Like bugs hitting a windshield

About eight hours later, Earth is supposed to travel through two other, even more dense trails, laid down by the comet in 1699 and 1866. By then it will be noon in Chicago and invisible here, but the later display, visible over night skies in China, Japan and Australia, is supposed to be even more intense than the North American spectacle.

Nonetheless, the show over North American skies could be extraordinary, said Adler Planetarium astronomer Michael Faison.

"Based on a model of the comet's orbit," said Faison, "this is going to be an extremely rich year. People are going on ocean cruises just to see this.

"Anywhere you go, even in the city, you will see stuff, but if you are someplace where it is darker, you will see more. The prediction models say the highest rate of meteors is going to be about 4 a.m., but there is a lot of uncertainty in that.

"The best bet is to go out and look for as long as you can.

"It's worth going out after midnight, after Earth has turned, and we're facing the direction in which the Earth is moving, so the meteors hit the atmosphere like bugs striking your car's windshield."

Faison is himself presiding over an Adler-sponsored public viewing party on a farm two hours northwest of Chicago. (Details available at adlerplanetarium.org)

If it is a clear night, Faison said, the viewing will be further enhanced because there is a new moon, making the sky even darker.

The Leonid meteor shower gets its name, Faison said, because when Earth annually crosses the old trails of the Tempel-Tuttle comet, it appears that the meteors are shooting out of the constellation Leo. The resulting meteors are called Leonids.

"Leo rises about midnight, and none of the Leonid shower meteors will be visible until Leo rises," said Mark Hammergren, another of Adler's staff astronomers. "So people won't see anything if they go out at 9 or 10 p.m. Saturday."

Once the constellation rises over the eastern horizon, however, there should be meteor activity throughout the night. The hope and the prediction is that at 4 a.m., give or take an hour, Earth will move through a more densely packed area of the 1767 dust trail, making the show most intense.

Many feared end of the world

Historians can track written records of dramatic encounters with Tempel-Tuttle's dust trails back to 902. In 1833, many people thought the world was coming to an end when an estimated 240,000 Leonids streaked across the sky in nine hours. "Never did the rain fall much thicker," wrote an eyewitness in North America, "than the meteors fell towards the Earth."

In 1866, some 8,000 were recorded over Europe in one hour. On Nov. 17, 1966, over parts of North America, observers recorded 144,000 meteors in an hour, sometimes 40 in a single second.

Experts do not think this weekend's meteor storm will top those in 1833 or 1966, but they think it will be awesome, nonetheless.

"Of course," noted Hammergren, "there is a possibility that we won't see much, too. Prediction of meteor showers today is at about the same level of predicting the weather. We're pretty sure there is going to be a meteor shower, but it's hard to predict the degree of its intensity."

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001


Brooks jinxed me. On another thread about the meteor storm, Brooks said it would be cloud covered and I wouldn't get to watch it from my field. Guess what, nothing but gray skies. :(

Still, I'm going to set my alarm for early, just in case.

apoc

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001


Would be fun to go out into the 'glades to watch. No lights out there, you know. Alligators are notorious about not paying the elctric bill.

Dunno if I'll be awake. I'll try, though.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001



Moderation questions? read the FAQ