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(meteorobs) LEONID METEORS LIKELY TO STORM THIS NOVEMBER
September 21, 2001
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Roger W. Sinnott, Senior Editor
617-864-7360 x146, rsinnott@skypub.com
LEONID METEORS LIKELY TO STORM THIS NOVEMBER
If predictions by the world's top meteor experts hold up, early on the
morning of November 18th skywatchers in North America can expect to see
their most dramatic meteor shower in 35 years. These meteors, called
Leonids because they appear to radiate from the constellation Leo (the
Lion), will signal the collision of Earth with streams of fast-moving dust
particles shed by Comet Tempel-Tuttle.
In the November 2001 SKY & TELESCOPE -- the magazine's 60th-anniversary
issue -- meteorologist Joe Rao assesses the predictions provided by three
teams of specialists. Rao concludes that two dramatic displays called
"meteor storms" appear likely.
A burst lasting perhaps two hours is expected in the predawn hours of
November 18th for observers throughout most of North and Central America.
The maximum rates should occur at 5:00 a.m. EST (corresponding to 4:00 a.m.
CST, 3:00 a.m. MST, 2:00 a.m. PST). With no moonlight spoiling the view,
the storm may briefly generate anywhere from several hundred to 1,000 or
2,000 meteors per hour for observers with clear, dark skies.
An even bigger storm arrives 8 hours later for viewers rimming the
far-western Pacific Ocean. Because these locations are on the other side of
the International Date Line, this peak occurs before dawn on November 19th.
Several thousand meteors may streak across the sky for an hour or so
starting at 3:30 or 4:30 a.m. in eastern Australia (depending on location);
2:30 a.m. in Japan; and 1:30 a.m. in western Australia, the Philippines,
and eastern China.
Meteors create momentary "shooting stars" when flecks of interplanetary
dust strike Earth's atmosphere at high speed. The Leonids, which are one of
a dozen or so annual meteor showers caused by cometary dust, arrive at a
blistering 44 miles (71 kilometers) per second -- the fastest known.
Typically showers produce one meteor every few minutes, though often there
are bursts and lulls. Two years ago the Leonids briefly peppered the skies
over Europe and the Middle East with up to 2,500 meteors per hour. In 1966
lucky observers in the southwestern United States gaped in awe for 20
minutes as Leonid meteors fell at the rate of 40 per second!
More about the prospects for a Leonid storm appears in the November issue
of SKY & TELESCOPE. This issue marks the diamond anniversary of the monthly
magazine for amateur astronomers launched by Charles and Helen Federer in
November 1941. The Federers took on the challenge of merging THE SKY (which
had been published by New York's Hayden Planetarium) and THE TELESCOPE
(then published by Harvard College Observatory). Today the magazine is
enjoyed by some 250,000 skywatchers worldwide.
SKY & TELESCOPE will issue another press release closer to the date of the
Leonid meteor shower containing background information about meteors and
how to observe them. More information is already available on the
magazine's Web site at:
http://www.skypub.com/sights/meteors/meteors.html