Spectacular Meteor Shower Expected
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - This week's Leonid meteor shower may be the largest such display until the end of the century, with possibly hundreds of meteors visible in the sky Tuesday morning.
The annual meteor shower usually delivers only a few visible meteors. But hundreds per hour might be visible as they burn up in the atmosphere this time, scientists say.
"Even with the full moon, this year's Leonids will probably be better than any other for the next hundred years," Don Yeomans, an astronomer at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said in a statement. "If you're ever going to see them, this might be the year to try."
The shower is predicted to have two peaks, each a couple of hours long, during which the most meteors can be seen, according to the lab.
The first peak is expected over Europe and Africa on Monday night, when observers in North America might see a few meteors skimming the top of the atmosphere, starting around 11:30 p.m. EST Monday.
The shower's second peak, most prominent in North American skies, is expected at around 5:30 a.m. EST Tuesday. Even though the moonlight will wash out the dimmest meteors, viewers in good locations will be able to see a few meteors or more every minute.
Astronomers predict that the next occurrence of a Leonid storm even close to this magnitude will be in 2099.
"I say in the very least, a person should step out their back door and look up and give it 15 minutes," said Erik Hubl, an amateur astronomer and chairman of the Hyde Memorial Observatory Board in Lincoln, Neb.
The meteors are dust particles shed by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which swings around the sun once every 33 years. The shower occurs each November, when the Earth's orbit takes it through the trail left by the comet.
The dust for this year's show actually was laid down by the comet in 1866. Most of the particles are smaller than a grain of rice but enter the atmosphere at 45 miles per second, burning up from friction