[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) The Nov. 98 Meteor Shower
Greetings (and I hope I am doing this mailing/question right!)!
The subject matter is what brought us in contact with your fine group
via Mark Davis.
The press briefly announced [AP report Attached] of the possibility of a
metorite shower for November 17, 1998 which is claimed to pose a real
threat to all earth orbiting hardware. The AP article is extensive and
detailed. To us it has the markings that the possibility of a metorite
shower is a legitimate concern.
However, while in residence in Portugal in 1993, the prestigious
Portuguese newspaper O PUBLICO concocted a worldwide scam - a self
confessed major news intoxication program - which convinced all,
including NASA, that on August 11th there was a possibility of a
"falling star storm". They succeeded in dragging millions of people from
Tokyo to New York and from Lisbon to Moscow to the fields and
coastlines to watch the phenomena.
The English translation of of their public confession in their August
14th edition is also attached to this e-mail. We hold in our files the
original newsprint in Portuguese.
Is this November 17, 1998, event another "new and improved" scam? My
dear gentleastronomers, these people even ticked NASA and the
International Astronomical Union.
Anything regarding the above will be greatly appreciated, not only by
us, but those who we reached regarding the original scam.
Remember we just went through a 45 million pager failure which has given
the possibility of the November event
a totally different dimension to the "man on the street".
Thank you!
We have enjoyed reading the cross-mail.
Miguel
From - Wed Apr 29 09:55:04 1998
Received: from MeteorObs ("port 1029"@[165.166.16.150])
From: Mark Davis <MeteorObs@Charlestondot net>
Subject: Re: Meteorite Showe Expected for November 18, 1998
X-Sender: MeteorObs@mail.charlestondot net
To: mdep@mgrfoundation.org
At 10:12 PM 4/28/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Greetings!
>
>In the TV CBS Evening News of today a possible large Meteorite Shower
>was announced for ca. Nov 18, 1998.
>
>The safety issue regarding Satellites, MIR Station as well as the Hubble
>telescope was discussed at length; however, we cannot find any back up
>for such news in AP nor Reuters.
>
>Comments and/or information, please.
Hi Miguel,
Below is the only AP article I have seen, but I think this is the one you
are asking about:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meteor Storms Threaten Satellites
.c The Associated Press
By JANE E. ALLEN
MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (AP) - In November, the Earth's atmosphere will be hit
with the most severe meteor shower in 33 years, a bombardment of debris that
could damage or destroy some of the nearly 500 satellites that provide
worldwide communications, navigation and weather-watching.
The debris consists only of particles - some thinner than a hair and most no
larger than a grain of sand - but they are hurtling through space so fast that
they can have the destructive power of a .22-caliber bullet.
As a result, about 200 commercial and military satellite operators, insurers
and scientists began brainstorming here Monday about what they can do to
prepare, such as turn off spacecraft or turn them away from the stream of
particles. The two-day gathering is called the Leonid Meteoroid Storm and
Satellite Threat Conference.
"The consequences are still virtually unknown. There has not been a meteor
storm since the onset of the modern space age. Nobody planned for it," said
Peter Brown, a physics and astronomy graduate student at the University of
Western Ontario who advises satellite operators.
The particles, known as meteoroids, are vastly smaller than the asteroids that
could one day slam into Earth, and none are expected to come anywhere near the
surface of the planet when they strike this November and again in November
1999.
But before the particles burn up in Earth's atmosphere, they could poke holes
in solar panels, pit lenses, blast reflective coating off mirrors, short out
electronics with a burst of electromagnetic energy, even reprogram computers,
said Edward Tagliaferri, a consultant to the Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit
organization.
In 1993, for example, a meteor struck the European Space Agency's Olympus
satellite and destroyed its directional control, rendering it useless.
"What if you get unlucky?" Delbert Smith, a Washington lawyer who represents
international networks and satellite operators, asked at the conference.
"Who's going to explain to the major corporations your satellites aren't
there anymore?"
While only a couple of satellites might get disabled - and some cost as much
as $500 million - all of them will suffer surface damage, said David Lynch, a
scientist with the Aerospace Corp.
Military satellites are better shielded because most are built to withstand
nuclear assault. But unlike commercial spacecraft that can be turned off
temporarily, military satellites "can't afford to be off the air,"
Tagliaferri said.
The Hubble Space Telescope - which suffered minor surface damage in the 1993
shower - will move to protect itself against Leonid damage by turning away
from the stream of particles, an option being considered by many satellite
owners.
First reported by Chinese astronomers back in 902, the Leonid meteoroid storms
- so-named because they are found in front of the constellation Leo - become
intense every 33 years. They occur when Earth passes through a trail of dust
left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle.
Scientists aren't sure when the heaviest showers will occur - Nov. 17, 1998,
or Nov. 18, 1999.
The spectacular showers will be visible this year across the Western Pacific
and Eastern Asia; the 1999 showers will be visible in the Middle East, Eastern
Europe and Central Asia. Storms last 90 minutes to two hours.
Back in 1966, when fewer than 100 satellites circled the Earth, the comet
produced peak showers of 144,000 meteors each hour and no major damage. This
year, with more than five times the number of circling spacecraft, some
experts think the rate could be 5,000 to 100,000 an hour.
But astronomer Donald Yeomans of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
put the rate as low as 500 to 2,000 particles per hour. And Brown agreed that
the rate won't be as high as it was in 1966.
AP-NY-04-27-98 1825EDT
Copyright 1997 The Associated Press.
<-- end -->
Mark Davis, MeteorObs@charlestondot net
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, USA
Coordinator, North American Meteor Network
===================================================
NAMN home page:
http://medicine.wustldot edu/~kronkg/namn.html
===================================================
THE CONSPIRACY OF THE STARS
Published In: "O PUBLICO", Portugal
On: Saturday, August 14, 1993
Translated By: Teresa Tavares
On: December 17, 1993
"O PUBLICO" confesses. We had hoped that we could keep the
situation in total secrecy but the (newspaper) "INDEPENDENTE",
with its characteristic intuitive sense, in a most brilliant
example of what Investigative Journalism should be, uncovered the
scam. Therefore, we have no other alternative but to confess.
Here it goes: The meteorite/falling star shower, announced by o
PUBLICO for the night of Wednesday (August 11th), was no more
than a gigantic intoxication (manipulation / calculated
misinformation) of public opinion staged by our newspaper.
Months of undercover work, that would have been the envy of
Mata-Hari, were necessary, but, in the end, o PUBLICO finally
convinced the International Astronomical Union, NASA and all the
observatories around the world with their astronomers, including
Miguel Esteves Cardoso, that there was a possibility of a falling
star storm of a magnitude never before witnessed in this century.
The success achieved by the achievement of the scam was only
possible thanks to the efforts and imagination of our specialists
in counter-information who, taking advantage of the fact that the
Earth was indeed going to cross the orbit of the Swift-Tuttle
eight months after (its recent visit), convinced the world that
the falling stars this year could be in the thousands.
The idea was ridiculous, yet it worked. O PUBLICO succeeded in
dragging millions of people, from Tokyo to New York and from
Lisbon to Moscow, to the fields and the coast lines. However,
the lie could not be maintained, and the furious popular
manifestations in Canada, the condemnation of various western
governments and the demonstrations, the day before yesterday, in
Stockholm, where they publicly burned some copies of o PUBLICO
and a photograph of Vicente Jorge Silva (Director of o PUBLICO),
illustrated to us how wrong our steps had been.
The objective of this stratagem, we humbly confessed, was to sell
newspapers. An effort crowned by a sale that exceeded in only
107 issues the sales figure achieved on the same day last year.
In an act of penitence, therefore, o PUBLICO intends to give to a
charity of the choice of MEC the profits achieved by the
incremental sale. Therefore, a check for the amount of 260
escudos (approx. $1.48 USD), may be picked up by MEC from our
offices during normal working hours.