Wired Coming Soon: Spectacular Meteors By Elan Lohmann

2:00 a.m. Oct. 31, 2001 PST The United States can look forward to the most spectacular meteor show since 1966 -- and it might be another 98 years before anything so sensational will be seen again.

The Nov. 18 Leonid meteor shower will be "very impressive, rare and something that you'll want to see," said Peter Jenniskens, a research scientist specializing in the study of meteors at the NASA/Ames Research Center at California's Moffett Field.

"The August Perseids meteor shower, which normally gets the most annual astronomer attention, records a rate of about 80 meteors an hour, but this November's Leonids will record a rate over 2000," Jenniskens said.

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Viewing conditions in the United States are expected to be sublime this year. One reason for this is the new moon, which falls on Nov. 18, when the sky will be its darkest.

A typical Leonid shower yields about 10 to 15 meteors per hour, but this year Jenniskens estimates the meteor shower will have as many as 4,200 an hour at its peak. Viewers along the East Coast will likely see the meteors fall directly from above, while in the West they will shoot across the sky at an angle.

The perfect viewing time is estimated to be between 4 and 6 a.m. EST, on Nov. 18.

"It is a naked-eye event. All one needs is a clear dark sky away from the city lights to enjoy the phenomena," Jenniskens said.

For a sneak preview, a good resource is the Leonid Flux Estimator, produced by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence/NASA Ames center. Tools on the site will calculate the best locations for viewing, the optimal spots from any town and how active the shower is expected to be in that area.

The whole show should last 2 hours and create the effect of Earth moving through a trail of dust, Jenniskens said.

An ordinary meteor showers occurs when Earth passes through debris left behind by comets. But this year, the Earth will be passing through particularly dense ribbons of comet debris.

The Leonid storm will occur when the Earth passes through a trail of tiny dust particles left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle during its passage in 1767.

Tempel-Tuttle orbits the sun every 33.25 years, shedding dust particles as it is warmed by sunlight. It first crossed the Earth's orbit in 860 A.D. The earth passes through some of the trail every year, but this year it will be particularly close.

Jenniskens said the next major Leonid storm will occur again in 2099, which will be one of its last tours. "The comet will then leave the Earth's orbit for good," he said.

In November 1833, the show was so spectacular many eyewitnesses feared the world was coming to an end. In 1966, Americans viewed another excellent stellar show, while in 1999, Europe witnessed an epic series of showers.

Jenniskens will be participating in the NASA-sponsored 2001 Leonid Multi Instrument Aircraft (MAC) mission, to be launched out of Edwards Air Force Base.

The 2001 Leonid MAC campaign follows a highly successful airborne campaign during the 1999 storm visible throughout Europe, when more than 4,000 meteors rained through the sky at its peak. It was the first to be observed by modern observing techniques.

"Only an airborne mission can bring scientists to the right place at the right time to view the Leonids, and guarantee clear weather," Jenniskens said.

-- Daytraders (something@somewhere.com), October 31, 2001

Answers

Where can it best be observed (what part of the country)? This sounds great, too, by the way.

-- Wendy A (phillips-anteswe@pendleton.usmc.mil), October 31, 2001.

Okay....and on a Saturday night/Sunday morning to boot! Keeping my fingers crossed I don't have the usual luck of it being cloudy weather. Or be so tired that I can't enjoy it, like the Perseids this summer. Had the fiberglass rowboat....equipped with electric motor. Set up the heavy duty lawn chair, pillow and blanket in this boat. Had my headset radio/tape player. Put on soft, warm clothing. Headed out onto the lake at midnight to the best viewing spot. Snuggled in, ready to enjoy the view...and fell promptly asleep. Woke up a couple hours later, watched for a few minutes, fell my eyes getting heavy again...so headed back to my nice warm bed. 'Course, in November, falling asleep won't be the problem, freezing my buns off will!

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), October 31, 2001.

In 1966, in Lubbock Texas, my best friend and I, and my ex wife, set up sleeping bags on the football field at a neighboring high school, in order to watch the Leonids. It was fun, but after an hour or so in the VERY cold weather, and seeing only a couple of meteors per minute, we had had enough.

I read, almost 33 years later, when the Leaonids were expected to be outstanding again, that, had we stayed up, we would likely have seen severl hundred thousand meteors, as folks in Arizona, Southern Cal, New Mexico, and Texas, were able to witness this if they were looking at 3-4:00 a.m.

Bummer! So, of course, in 1999 (and I don't understand why we should be having much of a show this year, since the comet went by in 1999) my current babe and I were all prepared to try to see the show. Of course, we weren't surprised that it was raining. It's almost always raining here (SW Orygun) in November. And December. And January. And February. And March. And so on.

I've seen photos of these "meteor storms". The sky is basically filled with meteors every where you look. In the past, people have been known to flee indoors, expecting the world to end.

JOJ

-- joj (jump@off.c), October 31, 2001.

Cool, We are studying meteors this year as part of our Earth Science in homeschool. Thanks for the information.-Vicki

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), October 31, 2001.

Yippee! The hottub is ready and waiting!

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), October 31, 2001.

you might be interested in this site; http://spaceweather.com/ check out their 'aurora galley', lots of beautiful pictures, quite a few from the recent solar flare.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), October 31, 2001.

This free software, Skyglobe is really good. Real-time location based sky map. http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/skyglobe.htm

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), October 31, 2001.

next few nights should be good for viewing the northern lights. Alot of this aurora activity lately is visible in the southern US.

SOLAR BLAST: Twisted magnetic fields near sunspot 9684 erupted Sunday, Nov. 4th, at 1620 UT. The explosion sparked an X1-class solar flare and hurled a bright coronal mass ejection toward Earth. The expanding cloud could trigger geomagnetic activity and Northern Lights when it buffets our planet's magnetic field on Nov. 6th or 7th. RADIATION STORM: Protons accelerated by Sunday's X-flare and coronal mass ejection have reached Earth, and an S3-class solar radiation storm is in progress.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 04, 2001.