Meteor showers to rain down on Earth in November

Only observers in a few time zones will be able to see full spectacle

By Suzanne Johnson, On-Line Forty-Niner

Monday, November 2, 1998

For those who want to view the most spectacular meteor shower of their lives, they should find a dark spot to observe the night skies on Nov. 17 and 18, said Paul Hintzen, a Cal State Long Beach physics and astronomy professor.

The highly anticipated storm many are watching for is known as the Leonid meteor shower named for the constellation Leo - its apparent place of origin, Hintzen said.

Meteors - streams of debris from crumbling comets - travel around the sun in orbits that cross the Earth's orbit.

In February 1998, the heat from the sun boiled off pieces of dust and sand from the comet Temple-Tuttle. Each November, the Earth passes through the comet's debris cloud in its orbit around the sun.

The side of the Earth that faces the stream is assaulted with meteors that range in size from grains of sand to small pebbles, which vaporize in the upper atmosphere, Hintzen said.

According to Hintzen, Leonid storms last approximately one week. The peak only lasts a few hours, therefore only observers in a few time zones will be able to see the full spectacle.

Hintzen said he believes the greatest showing will be in Asia.

"This has the potential to be the largest storm seen in decades. It depends on where we hit the comet's orbit," Hintzen said.

The only threat the shower poses is possible electrical damage to orbiting satellites, which are not surrounded by a protective atmosphere.

Hintzen said he knows of only two reported incidents of humans being struck by meteors.

Decades ago, a meteor supposedly came through the roof a home, striking a woman on the head, he said. Amazingly, she survived.

Meteor forecasting is still an inexact science, said Joe Rao in his article, "The Leonids: King of the Meteor Showers." But like weather forecasting, it is better than it used to be, he said.

Rao said the only thing predictable about meteor showers is that they are unpredictable.

The last major storm occurred in the mid 1960s.